NEW YORK – Erasca on Wednesday announced a partnership with Pierre Fabre to evaluate its investigational ERK1/2 inhibitor ERAS-007 with the BRAF inhibitor Braftovi (encorafenib) for BRAF V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer.
The partners will conduct a proof-of-concept trial evaluating ERAS-007 plus Braftovi and Eli Lilly's EGFR inhibitor Erbitux (cetuximab). Erasca has previously inked deals with Eli Lilly and Pfizer — which owns the rights to Braftovi in the US and Canada — to study this combination as a treatment for patients with gastrointestinal malignancies in the ongoing Phase Ib/II HERKULES-3 trial.
Pierre Fabre owns rights to Braftovi in international territories including Europe and the Asia-Pacific region but excluding Japan and South Korea. The new collaboration will enable Erasca to study the ERAS-007 combination regimen in the regions where Pierre Fabre holds rights to Braftovi.
"This partnership complements our existing [clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement] with Pfizer for encorafenib within the US and other markets," Erasca CEO, Chairman, and Cofounder Jonathan Lim said in a statement.
Lim further explained that resistance mechanisms, especially through MAPK reactivation, can limit the extent of long-term benefit seen with BRAF-targeted therapies already on the market. "By blocking RAS/MAPK pathway signaling at the most distal node, ERK1/2, ERAS-007 can potentially prevent pathway reactivation," he said.