Innate Pharma has announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) to lacutamab, an anti-KIR3DL2 cytotoxicity-inducing antibody, for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (r/r) Sézary Syndrome (SS) after at least 2 prior systemic therapies including mogamulizumab.

The BTD is granted based on Phase 1 study results as well as results from the Phase 2 TELLOMAK study, where lacutamab demonstrated encouraging efficacy and a favorable safety profile in heavily pretreated, post-mogamulizumab patients with advanced Sézary syndrome.

“There is a high unmet medical need for patients with Sézary syndrome. In this aggressive and rare form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, patients in advanced disease often experience very poor quality of life and are in strong need of new, targeted treatment options,” commented Sonia Quaratino, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Innate Pharma.

“The Breakthrough Therapy Designation underscores lacutamab’s potential to transform the patient’s care by achieving clinically meaningful efficacy and favorable safety profile compared to available therapies. This is an important step in Innate’s strategy for lacutamab. We are excited to work with the US FDA to accelerate the development of this therapy,” added Quaratino.

A Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the FDA is intended to accelerate the development and regulatory review in the US of drugs that are intended to treat a serious condition and that have shown encouraging early clinical results, which may demonstrate substantial improvement on a clinically significant endpoint over available medicines.

Lacutamab previously received a Fast Track designation by the FDA in 2019 for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory Sézary syndrome who have received at least two prior systemic therapies as well as a PRIME designation by European Medicines Agency in 2020.

Innate continues to align with the regulatory agencies around the confirmatory Phase 3 trial in CTCL and is actively seeking for a partner.