BioMarin's early data restores faith in real PARP inhibitors
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Early Phase I/II trial data has restored hope that PARP inhibitors may be effective in treating cancer. The PARP inhibitor class took a hit from the failure of Sanofi's iniparib triple-negative breast cancer, but that molecule turned out not to be a PARP inhibitor at all. Now, according to data revealed at the European Cancer Congress (ECC) in Amsterdam on 29 September, around half of the heavily pretreated patients receiving Biomarin's BMN-673 demonstrated an objective response. BioMarin will begin a pivotal Phase III trial to determine the role of BMN-673 in the treatment of BRCA mutation-positive patients. The drug could become the first PARP inhibitor to gain approval for BRCA mutation-positive metastatic breast cancer.