Basilea Reports Preclinical Data on Oncology Drug Candidates BAL0891, Derazantinib and Lisavanbulin at AACR Annual Meeting

Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd. has reported that promising preclinical data on the anti-cancer activity of its three oncology drug candidates, BAL0891, derazantinib and lisavanbulin, have been presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) that took place April 8-13, 2022, in New Orleans, USA.

BAL0891 is a potential first-in-class mitotic checkpoint inhibitor (MCI) that drives aberrant tumor cell division leading to tumor cell death, the company explained.

Dr. Laurenz Kellenberger, Chief Scientific Officer of Basilea, said: “The data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting confirm the differentiated profiles of our drug candidates. For BAL0891, the in-vitro an in-vivo data provide additional support for the novel mode of action of our compound and its potent single-agent activity. We are particularly pleased that BAL0891 shows convincing activity in models of human triple-negative breast cancer, a difficult-to-treat cancer with a high medical need.”

Finally, preclinical data were presented on avanbulin, the active moiety of Basilea’s tumor checkpoint controller lisavanbulin. In-vitro, avanbulin treatment was associated with high anti-tumor activity in models of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), supporting a potential application of lisavanbulin for the treatment of lymphoma patients. These data were generated in collaboration with Prof. Bertoni (Institute of Oncology Research, USI, Bellinzona, Switzerland), the company said.