Cantargia AB (STO:CANTA), a biotechnology company that develops antibody-based treatments for life-threatening diseases, announced on Tuesday new pre-clinical results from the antibody CAN04 (nidanilimab) in combination with platinum-based chemotherapies.

The company had previously reported synergistic antitumour effects between and the platinum compound cisplatin and CAN04.

These new preclinical results show synergistic antitumour effects in vivo using CAN04, also in combination with carboplatin or oxaliplatin, as well as CAN04 combined with the cisplatin and gemcitabine doublet. In all these settings, CAN04 also counteracted the chemotherapy-induced toxicity.

Currently, CAN04 is combined with cisplatin and gemcitabine in a clinical phase IIa study in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Cantargia develops antibody-based pharmaceuticals against the interleukin 1receptor accessory protein (IL1RAP).

The antibody drug candidate CAN04 is being investigated in combination with two different chemotherapy regimes in a phase IIa clinical trial (CANFOUR) in patients with NSCLC or pancreatic cancer.

Results from these preclinical studies is planned to be presented at scientific conferences during 2019.