Medpacto, a biomarker-based new drug developer, said it would present the phase 1b clinical trial results on Vactosertib, an immunotherapy agent, during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2020.

The company’s clinical trial uses Vactosertib in combination with paclitaxel as a second-line treatment for patients with metastatic gastric cancer. Medpacto conducted the trial at five local medical institutions, including Severance Hospital.

Vactosertib is a drug candidate that selectively inhibits transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), a mechanism that inhibits the therapeutic effect of immunotherapy.

The drug plays a role in regulating the tumor microenvironment so that immune cells can attack cancer cells and inhibit cancer stem cell production and tumor vascularization, solving resistance problems of anticancer drugs and inducing the death of cancer cells, the company said.

In the case of paclitaxel, an anticancer drug prescribed for gastric cancer patients, the duration of progression-free survival was slightly extended to three months when administered as a monotherapy and four months when combined with Cyramza, a monoclonal antibody developed by Eli Lilly.

However, there is still a need for a next-generation treatment to improve the treatment effectiveness of patients.

“According to a report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2018, gastric cancer is the most common disease among cancer patients in the world,” a company official said. “If the combination of paclitaxel and Vactosertib demonstrates safety and superior treatment improvement compared to existing treatments, the company expects that the demand for Vactosertib will increase explosively.”