LEUVEN, Belgium and STRASBOURG, France and PHILADELPHIA , Aug. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Flamingo Therapeutics ("Flamingo") today announced that the PEMDA-HN trial has expanded beyond the United States into the UK and Korea. Patient enrollment in the USA started in February 2024 and now the first patients have been dosed in these new geographies.
The PEMDA-HN trial is evaluating danvatirsen in combination with KEYTRUDA ® (pembrolizumab), Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, in patients with recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Flamingo's lead oncology program, danvatirsen, is an antisense oligonucleotide discovered by Ionis that selectively targets STAT3 and has shown clinical activity in HNSCC. "HNSCC is a difficult-to-treat cancer, with approximately 890,000 new cases each year globally, and accounts for almost 5% of global cancer deaths.
Patients are in need of new therapies and we are pleased to have expanded our study beyond the United States ," said Andrew Denker , MD PhD, CMO of Flamingo. "This is a significant milestone in the advancement of the PEMDA-HN study, and we are thankful for the support of our study participants, their families and our global collaborators." Dr.
Kevin Harrington , Consultant Oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Professor of Biological Cancer Therapies at The Institute of Cancer Research, London , commented, "STAT3 blocking using Flamingo's investigational therapy, danvatirsen, is a potential novel appr.