Allarity Therapeutics Gaining Momentum? Hits Multiple Milestones Including Positive Publications In PLOS One And At ASCO, Positive Early Data From An Ongoing Clinical Trial, And External Partnering For Its DRP® Technology

Allarity Therapeutics ALLR is a biotechnology company focused on realizing true personalized cancer care by developing targeted cancer therapies coupled with companion diagnostics. The company’s unique approach involves utilizing its proprietary Drug Response Predictor (DRP®) technology to identify which patients will most likely respond to a specific drug treatment. The DRP® platform generates drug-specific companion diagnostics that the company utilizes to select patients who are most likely to benefit from treatment with a given drug. This personalized medicine approach aims to improve patient outcomes and reduce the burden of unnecessary treatments while setting the company apart from competitors. The company currently has 3 drug candidates in its clinical development pipeline.

Despite facing challenges in recent years and pipeline pivots, Allarity seems to be gaining momentum as a company dedicated to transforming cancer drug candidates into personalized medicine solutions using their DRP® companion diagnostic (CDx) technology. The company has made significant progress in improving the efficacy of its drug candidates by identifying and treating patients with the highest chances of benefiting from those drugs, thanks to the use of the DRP®. The publication of positive, early data from the ongoing Ixempra® trial and the data presented at ASCO on LiPlaCis®, now being developed by partner, serve as evidence that Allarity is advancing to transform the future of cancer treatment.

Despite a challenging biotech funding landscape, Allarity has also successfully raised $18.5 million in capital within the last six months, including a recent round of $11 million. The company has also initiated a new clinical trial exploring combination therapy using their assets stenoparib and dovitinib. Additionally, Allarity has recently entered into an agreement with Australian biotech FivepHusion, allowing them to utilize Allarity's DRP® companion diagnostic technology in their clinical trials and future commercialization efforts for their drug candidate, Deflexifol™.  Allarity is confident that its DRP® technology, which analyzes the cancer cells’ transcriptome (the sum of all of its RNA transcripts), can be at least as successful as the predictive biomarker approach used by several peers, such as Kura Oncology KURA, which use a single or limited number of biomarkers as a patient screening method..

Most recently the company  had its  clinical validation study of the DRP® CDx for its pan-targeted kinase inhibitor (TKI) Dovitinib published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE. This study focuses on the development and predictive power of the DRP®-Dovitinib CDx to select  advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients (as well other solid tumors) who are responsive to Dovitinib. The study demonstrates that the DRP®-Dovitinib CDx successfully identifies a specific subgroup of advanced RCC patients who have shown improved clinical benefit when treated with dovitinib, as compared to patients who were not selected using this CDx.  The study is Allarity’s 14th peer-reviewed publication and underscores the extensive validation of the utility of the DRP® platform technology.

Allarity Therapeutics also has a diverse oncology drug pipeline consisting of three candidates at various stages of clinical development. They company’s  lead drug candidate  is stenoparib. Stenoparib is a PARP inhibitor being developed for the treatment of ovarian cancer (and potentially for other solid tumors). PARP inhibitors work by blocking the repair of damaged DNA, effectively killing cancer cells.

In addition to their lead candidate, Allarity Therapeutics has two other drug candidates in its development pipeline:  Dovitinib, which is being developed in a Phase 1b combination trial together with Stenoparib, for the treatment of a number of solid tumors including ovarian cancer; and Ixempra®, a microtubule inhibitor being developed in a European Phase 2 monotherapy trial for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.. The company anticipates an interim data readout for its Ixempra® trial, as well as its Stenoparib monotherapy trial towards the end of the year.

Additionally, Allarity has partnered with Oncoheroes Biosciences for the development of stenoparib and dovitinib for pediatric cancers, giving Allarity additional paths for clinical development of, and potential success, of these two drugs.

Allarity has also recently strengthened its board , with the addition of U.S. biotech industry executives, demonstrating their commitment to driving growth and success of the company. While Allarity has seen some volatility in stock price recently, CEO James G. Cullem is confident that the company is gaining momentum, while moving through a challenging climate in the small cap biotech sector. With the combination of an innovative pipeline along with its first-in-class DRP® technology, the company has the potential to exceed expectations.

Featured photo by Louis Reed on Unsplash.

This post contains sponsored content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.