China NMPA Clears InnoCare's Bispecific ADC ICP-B381 for Clinical Trials
核心洞察
China's NMPA Center for Drug Evaluation has approved InnoCare Pharma (搜索)'s IND application for ICP-B381 (搜索), a bispecific antibody-drug conjugate targeting PSMA (搜索) and STEAP1 (搜索).
The dual-targeting design aims to counter tumor antigen heterogeneity, a limitation of single-antigen ADCs in which low- or absent-expression subpopulations drive resistance and tumor escape.
ICP-B381 (搜索) is InnoCare's first bispecific ADC to enter clinical development and its third ADC overall to reach that stage, using a proprietary irreversible linker.
China's drug regulator has cleared InnoCare Pharma (搜索) (HKSE: 9969) to begin clinical testing of ICP-B381 (搜索), a bispecific antibody-drug conjugate designed to engage two prostate cancer (搜索)-associated antigens simultaneously: prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA (搜索)) and six-transmembrane epithelial antigen of the prostate 1 (STEAP1 (搜索)). The Center for Drug Evaluation of the National Medical Products Administration (搜索) approved the investigational new drug application for the treatment of solid tumors, with prostate cancer as a primary focus.
The dual-targeting approach addresses a limitation common to single-antigen ADCs — tumor antigen heterogeneity, in which subpopulations of cells with low or absent target expression can survive and drive resistance. By engaging both PSMA (搜索) and STEAP1 (搜索) at once, ICP-B381 (搜索) is designed to address antigen heterogeneity and potentially reduce tumor escape associated with low or lost expression. According to InnoCare, both targets are significantly overexpressed in prostate cancer (搜索) cells with limited expression in normal tissue.
ICP-B381 (搜索) is built on InnoCare's proprietary ADC platform and comprises a humanized anti-PSMA (搜索)/STEAP1 (搜索) bispecific antibody conjugated to a proprietary cytotoxic payload via what the company described as a next-generation irreversible linker; the specific payload class has not been disclosed. This is InnoCare's first bispecific ADC to enter clinical development and its third ADC overall to reach this stage.
Source: InnoCare gains China IND clearance for PSMA/STEAP1 bispecific ADC ICP-B381