NEW YORK – Inivata said on Thursday that it has partnered with Maverick Therapeutics to use Inivata's Radar (Residual Disease and Recurrence) assay to detect and monitor residual disease and recurrence in patients enrolled in Maverick's Phase I/II clinical study for its MVC-101 drug candidate.
As part of the study, the team will use Radar to monitor circulating tumor DNA from multiple tumor types in trial participants following MVC-101 treatment.
Cambridge, UK-based Inivata's Radar assay runs on the firm's InVision sequencing platform, which is built on a technology called targeted amplicon sequencing. The assay tracks up to 48 tumor-specific variants in a patient's blood sample, detecting residual disease following curative intent or definitive treatment.
Brisbane, California-based Maverick said that its MVC-101 T cell-engaging COBRA molecule is designed to target EGFR, a protein expressed on both solid tumors — including colorectal, head and neck, renal, pancreatic, cervical and non-small cell lung cancers — and healthy tissues. Maverick expects to initiate the MVC-101 trial early next year.
The collaborators believe the study's data will provide valuable early insights into the effectiveness of Radar and help inform both the proof of concept and recommended Phase I dose.
"The collaboration with Maverick is in line with our strategy to secure biopharma partnerships that utilize Radar in clinical trial settings to enable earlier insight on the efficacy of drug candidates for solid tumors," Peter Collins, chief business officer of Inivata, said in a statement. "By providing valuable insight into a particular patient's disease state, the assay has the potential to make clinical trials more focused and efficient."
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
"[Circulating tumor DNA] has shown promise as a predictive marker of early response for immunotherapies in solid tumor indications," Jeremiah Degenhardt, VP of translational oncology and bioinformatics at Maverick, said in a statement. "The patient-specific design of the Radar assay enables the detection of residual disease with exceptional sensitivity in multiple tumor types and it is therefore a highly complementary technology to advance our Phase I/II study."