Compass Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CMPX), a clinical-stage, oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company developing proprietary antibody-based therapeutics to treat multiple human diseases, announced the publication of a peer-reviewed article titled, “A bispecific anti-PD-1 and PD-L1 antibody induces PD-1 cleavage and provides enhanced anti-tumor activity” in the journal OncoImmunology. CTX-8371 is a fully-human, tetravalent bispecific antibody, discovered and developed by Compass Therapeutics as a next generation checkpoint blocker. The data highlighted the unique mechanism-of-action of CTX-8371, inducing dual blockade of PD-1 and PDL-1 and cleavage of cell surface PD-1. In addition, CTX-8371 demonstrates enhanced anti-tumor activity relative to approved anti-PD-1 blockers and anti-PD-L1 blockers in a series of in vitro and in vivo experimental settings.
“We are very pleased that our bispecific antibody, CTX-8371, outperformed known checkpoint blockers in a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments and, in particular, demonstrated enhanced in vivo anti-tumor efficacy in a mouse tumor model. Moreover, the data also suggested that the combination of checkpoint blockade with CTX-8371 and CTX-471, the CD137 agonistic antibody was potentially synergistic, suggesting a unique opportunity for proprietary combination regimens using our Compass antibodies,” says Thomas Schuetz, MD, PhD, Co-founder, President of R&D, and Vice Chairman of the board at Compass. “These compelling data are a testament to the functionality of our novel checkpoint inhibitor and we are excited to continue evaluating its potential in clinical studies. Our IND was cleared by the FDA at the end of 2023, and we expect to dose a first patient before the end of this quarter.”
