Michael Kauffman
Analyst · Leerink. Your line is open, please go ahead
Thank you, Justin, and good morning everyone. Thank you for joining us today on our call. Here at Karyopharm we are developing a broad clinical pipeline yet at the same time we remain highly focused on our number one priority, to complete the clinical trials necessary to seek regulatory approval and commercialization of our lead product candidate Selinexor, our first-in-class oral selective inhibitor of nuclear export or SINE compound, for cancers with significant unmet clinical needs. Our initial focus is hematologic malignancies, followed by multiple solid tumor indications. We plan to seek regulatory approvals of Selinexor in North America and Europe in each indication where appropriate. Longer term, we plan to seek additional approvals for Selinexor in combination therapies, as we believe that Selinexor has the potential to serve as a backbone therapy across multiple hematological and solid tumor malignancies as part of a variety of combination therapies. We also plan to expand the market opportunity by moving Selinexor further towards frontline cancer therapy. We note that we have all rights to Selinexor globally with patent protection out to at least 2032. We are well on our way in the execution of our regulatory strategy with Selinexor in multiple later-phase clinical trials in hematologic cancers and solid tumors. And we are preparing to establish the commercial infrastructure necessary to support a potential launch for Selinexor for hematologic indications in North America and Europe. While we are currently planning to establish the commercial infrastructure necessary to support the launch of Selinexor in North America and Europe, we will also evaluate potential collaborations within these geographies that enable further extension of the Selinexor development program into multiple additional tumor types, earlier lines of therapy, and additional combination regimens. We plan to seek collaborations for Selinexor in geographies outside of North America and Europe when the time is right. During 2015 and building on earlier data, diverse new clinical data on Selinexor were presented across a variety of indications. These data included preliminary safety and efficacy as a single agent in patients with solid tumors, including glioblastoma multiforme, sarcoma and gynecologic malignancies, and multiple myeloma with Selinexor in combination with carfilzomib or Kyprolis and dexamethasone, and with Selinexor in combination with standard of care intensive chemotherapy to treat adult and pediatric patients with acute leukemias. Last December, as the American Society of Hematology or ASH Annual Meeting, a clinical update from an ongoing investigator-sponsored study in multiple myeloma was presented by Dr. Andrzej Jakubowiak. In this study, the combination of Selinexor with carfilzomib and low-dose dexamethasone, which I'll call Dex, in patients with very heavily pre-treated multiple myeloma, achieved responses in six out of nine patients who had received a median of four prior treatment regimens, including carfilzomib, and whose disease was refractory to these therapies. Importantly, a majority of the patients whose multiple myeloma was refractory to carfilzomib in their last prior therapy, responded with at least a PR or better. These data are consistent with preclinical studies showing that selinexor can restore sensitivity to proteasome inhibitors and to other anticancer agents. Based on these encouraging data, we are initiating a randomized clinical study in the middle of this year to evaluate oral selinexor in combination with carfilzomib and low-dose Dex in patients with refractory myeloma. The study, titled "Selinexor, Carfilzomib and Dexamethasone Versus Placebo, Carfilzomib and Dexamethasone in Relapsed or Refractory Myeloma," or SCORE, will evaluate selinexor in combination with low-dose Dex and carfilzomib. While the treatment of multiple myeloma and patient survival rates have improved significantly in the last several years due to the availability of non-chemotherapeutic agents such as immunomodulatory agents, proteasome inhibitors, and more recently, monoclonal antibodies, nearly all patients eventually relapsed and succumbed to their disease, with around 37,000 deaths from multiple myeloma in the United States and Europe expected this year. We believe that there remains a need for therapies for patients whose disease has relapsed after or is refractory to available therapy. Earlier this month, our first in human phase one clinical data for selinexor were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. These data showed single-agent clinical activity of selinexor in several different solid tumor types. In addition, selinexor dosing of 60 mg twice weekly, about half the maximum tolerated dose, was the recommended phase two [ph] dose across many immunologic and solid tumors based on superior patient tolerability, duration of therapy, and radiologic response or disease stabilization as compared with higher doses. This dosing regimen is supported by results from other early-stage selinexor clinical trials across a variety of indications that's presented at ASH 2015. These data show that selinexor dosed at approximately 60 mg twice weekly is associated with the maximum overall response rates, and that this dose optimizes the therapeutic window response rate and duration of treatment. Consistent with this broad anticancer activity, we have multiple ongoing company and investigator-sponsored clinical trials of selinexor. Over the next 6 to 18 months we expect to provide data for a number of studies, some of which, if positive, could serve as the basis for regulatory filings. These trials include: STORM in multiple myeloma, where we expect phase 2b topline data at the primary endpoint of overall response rate from the first 80 patients in mid-2016. SOPRA in AML, where we expect the phase two interim analysis in late 2016 where we will make a go/no-go decision, and the topline overall survival data from this study will be available in mid-2017. STAMP, also in multiple myeloma, where we expect phase 1b topline data in the recommended phase two dose for at least one of the regimens in late 2016. SADAL in DLBCL, where we expect phase 2b topline overall response data in early 2017. And SCORE in multiple myeloma, which we expect to begin in the middle of this year, with phase two topline overall response data in mid-2017. On the solid tumor front, we initiated the phase 2/3 SEAL study evaluating single-agent oral selinexor in patients with advanced unresectable dedifferentiated liposarcoma after at least one systemic therapy. This study is based on promising clinical data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology or ASCO 2015 Annual Meeting, in which durable stable disease and improvement in progression-free survival compared to previous chemotherapies were observed. Topline progression-free survival data from the phase two portion of this study are expected in mid-2017. We look forward to the presentation of additional data on our pipeline this year, including at the upcoming AACR Meeting in April in which 19 abstracts related to selinexor and our earlier-stage oncology programs have been accepted for presentation. Finally, we are continuing to progress our non-oncology pipeline programs, including verdinexor or KPT-335, for certain viral indications, with an initial focus on influenza, and KPT-350 for neurological auto-immune and inflammatory conditions. We may partner with a collaborator to undertake the clinical development and potential commercialization of these non-oncology programs. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Sharon to provide more details on our clinical development plans for selinexor and our pipeline of other drug candidates. Sharon?