Setback: Novartis lung cancer drug fails phase 3 study CANOPY-1

"CANOPY-1 provides critical insights into the treatment of this devastating disease, and we will continue to analyze the data and conclusions, as well as their potential clinical implications," said John Tsai, MD, Head of Global Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, Novartis. "While this trial did not confirm the benefit for all patients we hoped for, we are energized by the overall CANOPY-1 findings as they support our commitment to continue studying canakinumab in lung cancer. We share our gratitude and thanks to the CANOPY-1 study patients and clinical investigators for their partnership."

Novartis and investigators are collaborating on further data analysis and will present the full dataset at an upcoming medical meeting. The company is continuing with the evaluation of canakinumab in lung cancer, and is applying findings to the overall lung cancer development plan.

The comprehensive CANOPY clinical trial program continues with CANOPY-A, a Phase III study investigating canakinumab as an adjuvant therapy (after surgery), and CANOPY-N, a Phase II study in the neoadjuvant setting (before surgery). Enrollment for both trials is ongoing. Patients in the CANOPY-A trial more closely reflect the earlier CANTOS study population than those in the CANOPY-1 trial. CANTOS was the first study to show that blocking the IL-1β inflammatory signal may potentially reduce lung cancer's incidence and mortality.

Canakinumab is a potential first-in-class interleukin-1beta (IL-1β) inhibitor of the Pro-Tumor Inflammation (PTI) pathway in NSCLC. PTI, which enables tumor development by driving cancer-causing processes and suppressing anti-tumor immune responses, is one of the potential hallmarks of cancer and targets in NSCLC. Novartis is developing other potential PTI pathway inhibitors, which are at various stages of development, including gevokizumab.