IMPACT 2021 R&D Day: Synthetic Lethality Provides a New Platform for Targeted Cancer Therapy

SHANGHAI, Dec. 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2^nd R&D Day event of IMPACT Therapeutics (IMPACT) successfully took place in Shanghai on December 3^rd (GMT+8). With the theme of "Synthetic Lethality: A New Platform for Targeted Therapy", the event attracted nearly 300 guests offline and online. The guests were from investment institutions, pharmaceutical companies, universities, research institutes, industrial parks, and other industry organizations all over the world. Through academic exchanges and round-table discussions, they addressed the prospect of "synthetic lethality" as a new platform for targeted therapy, which has attracted a lot of attention, and demonstrated the outstanding achievements of IMPACT in this field.

Dr. Jun Bao, President & CEO of IMPACT, said at the event, "In 2021, IMPACT achieved breakthroughs on multiple targets including PARP, Wee1, and ATR, to become one of the biotech companies with the widest DDR pipeline in the world. We're still driving our global development strategy for the synthetic lethality pipeline. Our target is to have at least one new compound in the clinical stage each year. Our long-term goal is to become a multinational biotech company from early development to production and sales through team building and facility building, so that patients around the world can benefit from our products."

All the candidates in IMPACT pipelines are internally discovered and developed, uniquely designed innovative chemical structure and are highly differentiated. Thanks to the development strategy of focusing on the DDR pipeline, IMPACT has more possibilities of using drugs in combination with those from its own pipeline. Today, the company already has three synthetic lethality compounds in the clinical stage, including a PARP inhibitor, which is undergoing pivotal clinical studies.

IMPACT pipeline products include PARP inhibitor (Senaparib/ IMP4297), Wee1 inhibitor (IMP7068), ATR inhibitor (IMP9064) and other novel DDR pathway inhibitors. The lead clinical program, PARP inhibitor (Senaparib/ IMP4297), is in Phase II/III studies for ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, small cell lung cancer and other indications worldwide, including China. Senaparib's preliminary clinical data demonstrated superior tolerability and wider therapeutic window compared with other PARPi. Phase I study of Wee1 inhibitor (IMP7068) is conducted globally. ATR Inhibitor IMP9064 has received IND Clearance by FDA to start clinical studies in the U.S. and submitted clinical application in China. Hedgehog pathway inhibitor (IMP5471) has received IND approval from NMPA to initiate clinical studies in China.

Dr. Chih-Yi Hsieh, Senior Vice President & Chief Medical Officer of IMPACT, introduced the company's clinical strategy and pipelines. "We always follow a global development strategy, to seek clinical studies in China and the U.S. simultaneously. Next, our most important strategy will be driving clinical trials for each pipeline in single-drug therapies or combination therapies, to meet the unmet clinical needs. At IMPACT, we take the differentiation of clinical trials very seriously, and carry out personalized development for each new drug based on its molecular characteristics by adopting multiple strategies, such as distinguishing patient groups, developing biomarkers, designing clinical trials innovatively, and exploring combination therapies, to deliver more clinical benefits to patients." said Dr. Hsieh.

In addition to sharing the company's development strategy and product pipeline by IMPACT executives, the event also featured academic presentations by four globally renowned scientists: Dr. Douglas Hanahan and Dr. Robert Weinberg, the authors of the paper "The Hallmarks of Cancer", Dr. Alan D. D'Andrea, a leading international expert of DNA damage and repair, and Dr. Andrew Zhu, a global oncology KOL. They are also four members of the IMPACT Academic Advisory Committee. In their presentations, they also addressed the hot topic of how to overcome the resistance to PARP inhibitors, put forward the possibility of using combination therapies to solve drug resistance, and shared the clinical development experience of different indications for the potential application of the synthetic lethality strategy. It was a brilliant international academic event for all the participants.

After a whole day of intense academic discussions, Dr. Bao, Dr. Hsieh, Dr. Suixiong Cai, EVP & CTO of IMPACT, and Dr. Ye Edward Tian, EVP & CSO of IMPACT, took the stage for a round-table session. They interacted with the guests about the development prospect and challenge of the synthetic lethality strategy as well as the company's overall plan from early development and product development to clinical studies.

Following the interaction with industry partners through an R&D Day event last year for the first time, IMPACT continued to adopt the online + offline form for this year's event, to interact with as many peers as possible for academic and commercial purposes. Looking into the future, synthetic lethality is a very promising area where more potential targets may appear, to open a new horizon for targeted cancer treatment. IMPACT will continue to probe into synthetic lethality and accelerate the development of new targeted drugs, to achieve the great vision of "Make an IMPACT on Cancer Treatment".

About IMPACT Therapeutics

IMPACT Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of targeted anti-cancer therapeutics based on synthetic lethality. IMPACT Therapeutics has assembled one of the most comprehensive DNA damage response (DDR) global pipeline of novel drug candidates generated by in-house discovery efforts and is expanding to other novel synthetic lethality targets to broaden its pipeline. IMPACT pipeline products include PARP inhibitor (Senaparib/ IMP4297), Wee1 inhibitor (IMP7068), ATR inhibitor (IMP9064) and other novel DDR pathway inhibitors. The lead clinical program, PARP inhibitor (Senaparib/ IMP4297), is in Phase II/III studies for ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, small cell lung cancer and other indications worldwide, including China. Senaparib's preliminary clinical data demonstrated superior tolerability and wider therapeutic window compared with other PARPi. Phase I study of Wee1 inhibitor (IMP7068) is conducted globally. ATR Inhibitor IMP9064 has received IND Clearance by FDA to start clinical studies in the U.S. and submitted clinical application in China. Hedgehog pathway inhibitor (IMP5471) has received IND approval from NMPA to initiate clinical studies in China. For more information, please visit www.impacttherapeutics.com/en/

SOURCE IMPACT Therapeutics