Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals in Clinical Collaboration With Roche

Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it has entered into a new clinical collaboration with Roche to explore the co-administration of SB 11285, Spring Bank’s intravenously-administered stimulator of interferon gene agonist with Roche’s PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab in patients with advanced solid tumors.

Spring Bank dosed the first patient in the monotherapy dose escalation component of the intravenously-administered SB 11285 Phase 1a trial in the fourth quarter. This monotherapy dose escalation component will be followed by a combination dose escalation of IV SB 11285 with checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab and with atezolizumab as an additional arm added to the combination dose escalation segment of the Phase 1a trial.

By the end of 2020, Spring Bank said it plans to generate sufficient data from its Phase 1a/1b IV agonist program to enable advancement into a Phase 2 clinical trial.

The Phase 1b trial will explore IV SB 11285 antitumor activity in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in selected tumor types. The trial is being conducted at multiple sites in the U.S. Spring Bank shares were up 25% to $1.50 premarket.