TME Pharma N.V. announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), after reviewing the comprehensive submission, has approved the company's Investigational New Drug (IND) application to evaluate the company's lead asset NOX-A12 in a Phase 2 study in pancreatic cancer (OPTIMUS) in the United States. OPTIMUS is an open-label Phase 2 study designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of NOX-A12 combined with anti-PD-1 pembrolizumab (Keytruda® from Merck) and two different chemotherapy regimens (nanoliposomal irinotecan/5-FU/Leucovorin or gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel) in second-line pancreatic cancer. The study is expected to enroll approximately 70 patients in clinical sites in the US, as well as France and Spain, where the study has been previously approved.

As announced in June 2022, TME Pharma is currently focusing its capabilities on the development of NOX-A12 in glioblastoma. Therefore, the OPTIMUS Phase 2 trial in second-line pancreatic cancer will be initiated once appropriate funding becomes available. NOX-A12 is currently being developed in GLORIA, a Phase 1/2 study evaluating NOX-A12 in combination with radiotherapy and with or without bevacizumab in first-line glioblastoma brain cancer (glioblastoma) patients with tumors resistant to standard chemotherapy (with unmethylated MGMT promoter).

Interim data reported to date from GLORIA demonstrate that NOX-A12 has an excellent safety profile with extremely encouraging signs of efficacy showing an 83% rate of survival at 14 months in patients with detectable chemotherapy refractory tumor remaining after surgery.