BioRay Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “BioRay”) announced on October 7th that its clinical trial application for BR105 Injection has received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This marks BioRay’s first project to receive FDA IND approval.
BR105 Injection is a humanized monoclonal antibody developed in-house, specifically targeting SIRPα. It can recognize common genotypes of SIRPα (V1, V2, V8) and disrupt the interaction between SIRPα and its ligand CD47, thereby abolishing the “don’t eat me” signal between macrophage and tumor cell. This activation enables macrophages to perform their tumor-phagocytosing function, achieving anti-tumor immunotherapy.
The efficacy of targeting CD47/SIRPα has been validated in various tumor models, and previous clinical studies suggest that targeting the CD47/SIRPα signaling pathway may have a broad spectrum of anti-tumor activity. CD47/SIRPα-targeted therapy has shown positive results in acute myeloid leukemia, lymphoma, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, gastric cancer, and other malignancies.
Compared to CD47, the expression of SIRPα is more specific. By targeting SIRPα instead of CD47, BR105 exhibits enhanced safety profile intrinsically. Additionally, CD47 interacts with other proteins, such as TSP-1, SIRPγ, leading to a more complex signaling network and increased risks in corresponding targeted therapies. Therefore, developing SIRPα antibodies to block the CD47/SIRPα signaling pathway is a more promising strategy in oncology drug development. Currently, no medicine targeting SIRPα has been approved in the global market.
Phase I clinical trial of BR105 Injection is currently on-going in China, and preliminary result has confirmed its good clinical safety.
“Based on our global strategic layout of innovative drugs, the FDA IND approval of BR105 Injection as our first FDA approved clinical trial project is a significant milestone for BioRay. Currently, fierce competition exists in the global innovative drug discovery and development arena, where innovation is indispensable. BioRay continues to invest heavily in innovation and build a rich pipeline of innovative biopharmaceuticals,” said by Dr. Wei Zhu, Chief Medical Officer of BioRay. “We look forward to transforming these pipelines and BR105 into best-in-class therapies in autoimmunology and immuno-oncology, benefiting an increasing number of patients both in China and overseas.”
