Roche Korea said it would conduct a clinical trial on immunotherapy Tecentriq (ingredient: atezolizumab) to expand its indications to breast cancer from metastatic urothelial cancer and non-small cell lung cancer.

With competitors such as Bristol-Meyers Squibb’s Opdivo and Merck, Sharpe and Dohme’s Keytruda seeking various combination therapies and additional indication expansion through clinical trials, Tecentriq is also taking a similar step.

Last Thursday, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved Roche Korea’s plan for a phase-3 clinical trial on the efficacy and safety of the combination of atezolizumab and chemotherapy for patients suffering locally advanced or metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), who cannot receive surgery. The global clinical trial includes 20 Korean patients.

Tecentriq is a cancer immunotherapy that targets a protein called PD-L1 on tumors and immunocytes. The drug combines with PD-L1 to restore T-cells’ anticancer functions. While existing immunotherapies targeted PD-L1 on immunocytes only, Tecentriq targets both tumors and immunocytes.

Tecentriq was the third immunotherapy to receive a sales approval in Korea in January. It has indications in metastatic urothelial cancer, one of the bladder cancers, and in non-small cell lung cancer.