NEW YORK – Hummingbird Bioscience announced on Monday that it has entered into a strategic collaboration with Tempus to advance its investigational agent HMBD-001, a neutralizing antibody designed to treat patients with HER3-driven cancers.
Tempus will bring its artificial intelligence platform and proprietary data to the HMBD-001 development program. Hummingbird will also join Tempus' TIME Trial Network, which aims to match cancer patients, especially those treated in the community oncology setting, to precision oncology clinical trials based on molecular testing. Hummingbird's participation in the TIME Trial Network will specifically allow for the rapid identification of patients with NRG1 fusions who may be eligible to enroll in a clinical trial for HMBD-001.
According to Hummingbird, preclinical research has demonstrated HMBD-001's sustained anti-tumor activity in HER3-driven cancers, including those with NRG1 fusions. The agent was designed using Hummingbird's Rational Antibody Discovery Platform to block HER3 in open or closed conformations both in the presence or absence of high NRG1 concentrations.
"We are excited to collaborate with Tempus to leverage their just-in-time clinical trial program and apply Hummingbird's deep knowledge of disease-driving protein mechanisms in order to identify patients with actionable genetic abnormalities," Piers Ingram, Hummingbird's CEO and cofounder said in a statement.
Hummingbird expects to advance HMBD-001 into clinical trials in the first half of 2021.