Efficacy results of derazantinib in cholangiocarcinoma

While ESMO 2022 annual meeting is around the corner, many big pharma giants are eagle eyeing this opportunity to present their data readouts from different oncology indications that could impact the treatment patterns in the near future. Of such indications, GI cancers have been hugely acknowledged and gained much importance over the past few years among such key companies. The top players presenting in the upcoming ESMO 2022 session are Basilea Pharmaceuticals.

Basilea Pharmaceuticals is developing its lead product candidate, derazantinib, in patients with FGFR2 gene fusion advanced iCCA. These patients do not have many treatment options after progressing with the 1L chemotherapy, and only pemigatinib and infigratinib are currently approved for chemorefractory CCA. The company had published encouraging results from the Phase II FIDES-01 trial. Derazantinib showed encouraging data in CCA patients where there has been very limited clinical evidence of successful treatment with other FGFR inhibitors and confirms the potential of derazantinib as monotherapy for treating patients with diverse FGFR2 genetic aberrations. It will be interesting to watch the progressive outcome of derazantinib at ESMO 2022. FGFR2 fusions are an important target in CCA; however, after an initially higher relapse rate to these agents, most tumors will develop disease progression, and efforts are still underway to identify the mechanism of resistance to this mutation type. Although, several companies are involved in developing drugs against FGFR, including Eisai, Taiho oncology, and others.