Provectus Biopharmaceuticals Inc (NYSEMKT:PVCT) a clinical-stage oncology and dermatology biopharmaceutical company (“Provectus” or the “Company”), today announced that the poster presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology 2016 Congress is now available online.
Titled “Intralesional Rose Bengal for Stage III and IV Melanoma,” the poster (abstract 1159TIP) was presented Sunday, October 9, 2016, by Dr. Sanjiv Agarwala, and can now be viewed at:http://provectusbio.com/media/docs/publications/ESMO%202016%20-%20Abstract%201158TIP%20-%20150%20DPI%20-%2009%20Oct%202016.pdf
Dr. Agarwala’s presentation reviewed the current studies underway for melanoma utilizing PV-10: the phase 3 clinical trial of intralesional PV-10 as a single agent therapy for locally advanced cutaneous melanoma (study PV-10-MM-31, clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT02288897, EudraCT no. 2016-000317-78); and the phase 1b/2, study of intralesional PV-10 in combination with immune checkpoint inhibition (study PV-10-MM-1201, NCT02557321).
Study PV-10-MM-31 is an international multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled trial (RCT) of single-agent intralesional PV-10 versus systemic chemotherapy or intralesional oncolytic viral therapy to assess treatment of locally advanced cutaneous melanoma. A total of 225 patients with Stage IIIB to IV-M1a melanoma will be randomized in a 2:1 ratio against the comparator therapy for assessment of progression free survival.
Study PV-10-MM-1201 is an international multicenter, open-label, sequential phase study of intralesional PV-10 in combination with pembrolizumab, marketed by Merck as Keytruda®. Stage
IV metastatic melanoma patients with at least one injectable cutaneous or subcutaneous lesion who are candidates for pembrolizumab are eligible for study participation. In the Phase 1b portion of the study, all participants receive the combination of IL PV-10 and pembrolizumab (i.e., PV-10 + standard of care). In the subsequent Phase 2 portion of the study, participants will be randomized 1:1 to receive either the combination of IL PV-10 and pembrolizumab or pembrolizumab alone for assessment of progression free survival.
Dr. Eric Wachter, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer of Provectus, noted, “The annual ESMO congress has grown to be one of the largest and most important oncology meetings of the year, and we were privileged with selection for participation in the technical program. Participation in this international forum allowed us to meet face-to-face with current and prospective investigators from around the globe, thereby providing an efficient way to exchange information about our development plans, the potential impact of ongoing changes in the oncology landscape, and ways to address these impacts through refinement of protocol designs.”
Dr. Wachter continued, “As we’ve reported previously, we maintain ongoing discussions with key advisors on ways to optimize our development plans, including ways that study designs can be adjusted for maximum efficiency. After a major update of our key phase 3 protocol early this year, and a smaller update at mid-year, our ESMO participation allowed us to test the outcome of subsequent discussions regarding further small adjustments on a broader audience in the melanoma community. We expect to implement at least several of these changes in the near future based on these discussions. In particular, allowing patients with primarily or exclusively subcutaneous melanoma (that is, melanoma below the skin surface) and those with larger tumors should not significantly affect the biological basis for our phase 3 study, but could substantially expand the fraction of patients with locally advanced disease that can participate in the study.”