NEW YORK – Prelude Therapeutics on Wednesday announced a clinical trial collaboration with BeiGene to study its CDK9 inhibitor PRT2527 in combination with BeiGene's BTK inhibitor Brukinsa (zanubrutinib) in hematologic malignancies.
In preclinical studies, PRT2527 has reduced MCL1 and MYC protein levels in cancers driven by alterations in MCL1, MYC, and MYB. The combination of CDK9 inhibition with BTK inhibition has also shown synergistic clinical efficacy in recently published studies, according to Prelude.
The Wilmington, Delaware-based firm is already studying PRT2527 in a Phase I trial in certain blood cancers including aggressive B-cell lymphoma subtypes such as mantle cell lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic lymphoma, and small lymphocytic lymphoma, including Richter's syndrome. The firm is also evaluating the drug in solid tumors, including MYC-altered solid tumors, in a Phase I study.
BeiGene's Brukinsa is approved in the US for mantle cell lymphoma, Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, marginal zone lymphoma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma.
Prelude is also developing an MCL1 inhibitor, a next-generation CDK4/6 inhibitor, and a SMARCA2/BRM protein degrader. Last year, the firm began a Phase I trial of its SMARCA2 degrader PRT3789 in patients with advanced solid tumors with SMARCA4 mutations.