Nordic Nanovector announces that the first patient has been enrolled into one of the two new arms of its expanded Lymrit 37-01 clinical study with Betalutin.

Betalutin is a novel anti-CD37 targeting Antibody Radionuclide Conjugate in development for the treatment of major types of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), including Follicular Lymphoma (FL). The new arm (Arm 3) is designed to investigate the safety and efficacy of Betalutin in up to 12 patients with relapsed FL pre-dosed with standard anti-CD20 immunotherapy (rituximab) on Day 0, a few hours prior to the administration of Betalutin.

“We are pleased to initiate the first of the two new cohorts in our ongoing clinical study, which represents a significant step forward in Betalutin’s development plan. Data we have seen to date suggest that we can achieve strong clinical efficacy with a regimen that controls haematological side effects. The two new arms are investigating if different pre-dosing regimens will allow the use of higher doses of Betalutin to potentially achieve even higher efficacy than that so far observed, and therefore an even more compelling product profile,” said Luigi Costa, Nordic Nanovector CEO.

The Lymrit 37-01 study is a Phase 1/2 open label, single injection ascending dose study investigating three dose levels of Betalutin and different dosing regimens in patients with relapsed NHL with the aim of identifying an optimal dose regimen to take into the Phase 2 PARADIGME study, which is expected to start in 2H 2017.

Patient recruitment into the Phase 2 part of Arm 1 (15Mbq/kg plus 50mg/ml unconjugated “cold” HH1 anti-CD37 antibody) is progressing as planned with dose-escalation expected to begin in 2H 2016. Patient screening is also underway for the final arm in the expanded Lymrit 37-01 study (Arm 4), in which escalating doses of Betalutin plus pre-treatment with a higher dose of cold anti-CD37 antibody than in Arm 1 will be evaluated in relapsed FL patients.

A decision to increase the dose of Betalutin to 17.5 MBq/kg in Arm 1 can be made based on the evaluation of the safety and efficacy data observed in the 15 patients treated with 15 MBq/kg. A decision to increase the dose of Betalutin to 17.5 MBq/kg or 20 MBq/kg in one or the other of Arms 3 and 4 can be made based on the evaluation of the safety and efficacy data observed in the first three patients of both cohorts.

Data and analysis recently published at the American Association of Cancer Research annual meeting (16-20 April) confirmed that Betalutin was generally well tolerated and showed a 63.2% Overall Response Rate (ORR) and a 31.6% Complete Response (CR) in evaluable patients. Clinical responses observed were sustained, with Duration of Response exceeding 12 months in most responders in the 15 MBq/kg group who have been followed up for at least 12 months.