Ocean Biomedical announces ability to restore treatment sensitivity Osimertinib

Ocean Biomedical (OCEA) announced that its cancer-targeting immunotherapy antibody candidate has demonstrated effective tumor reduction against an aggressive subset of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, NSCLC, with Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor, EGFR, mutations. These research findings generated by Ocean’s Scientific Co-founder Dr. Jack A. Elias and colleagues from Yale University and Brown University, and first published as a preprint last week in bioRxiv, are the first to uncover the role of Chitinase 3-like-1 in the pathogenesis of EGFR-mutant cancers, with potential applications not just in NSCLC, but in all EGFR-mutant cancers, including glioblastoma and colon cancer. The studies demonstrate the ability of Ocean Biomedical’s cancer-targeting immunotherapeutic antibody to control the growth of human tumor cells with EGFR mutations by suppressing CHI3L1 activity. Additionally, the findings demonstrate a stunning ability to restore therapeutic sensitivity to current tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapies after resistance sets in, including the third-generation TKI, Osimertinib, marketed as Tagrisso by AstraZeneca (AZN). In mouse model testing in combination with Osimertinib, Ocean’s antibody was shown to stop human tumor progression by inducing tumor cell death and stimulating tumor suppressor genes. In these findings, the role of CHI3L1 in EGFR-mutant lung cancer is described for the first time. Ocean Biomedical’s cancer immunotherapy candidate demonstrates potential use in EGFR-mutant cancer immunotherapy in multiple ways: 1) as a stand-alone therapy 2) as a combination therapy with current TKI inhibitors, and 3) as a “salvage therapy” in combination with TKI inhibitors like Osimertinib-potentially extending their therapeutic life.