Allarity: Stenoparib continues to show clinical benefit in ovarian cancer

Allarity Therapeutics announced that multiple patients in its Phase 2 clinical trial of stenoparib for advanced recurrent ovarian cancer have been on treatment for more than 30 weeks. The continued durability of clinical benefit further bolsters the Company’s announcement in early May 2024 that stenoparib had shown clear clinical benefit, including significant tumor shrinkage and long-term disease stability, in patients who had been heavily pre-treated for their ovarian cancer and otherwise have limited life expectancy. These results provided clinical proof of concept for stenoparib as a treatment in this patient population, prompting the company to halt patient enrollment to focus its resources on developing a follow-on trial designed to accelerate the path for stenoparib toward regulatory approval. After conducting a detailed review of the stenoparib monotherapy trial data, including the data announced today, the Company has concluded that these data may be of significant interest among key oncologists, potential commercial partners, and other relevant stakeholders and therefore warrant presentation within a high-level scientific conference. Further release of these clinical data is intended to be staged to comply with the common rules of scientific conferences, which do not allow data to be published before the event. The PARP inhibitor market saw a major shift in 2022 as rucaparib, olaparib, and niraparib were withdrawn for heavily pretreated ovarian cancer patients, underscoring the need for new, effective PARP inhibitors with a more favorable safety profile. The PARP inhibitor market is expected to reach $22 billion in revenue by 2028, and has historically seen significant partnerships and acquisitions. Recent interest in the market has focused on the development of PARP inhibitors with improved tolerability and safety profiles, leading to notable activity in the sector. For example, one significant acquisition included a multi-asset deal potentially totaling $1.5 billion, which featured an advanced PARP inhibitor. Stenoparib is orally available and also shares an advantaged safety profile relative to 1st generation PARP inhibitors. It also inhibits the Tankyrase 1 and 2 enzymes, which helps block the activity of the WNT/Beta-catenin pathway, a pathway often overactive in ovarian and many other solid cancers. The safety and unique, dual inhibitory activities of stenoparib make it a differentiated and compelling potential therapeutic product.