Amplia Therapeutics reports promising preclinical data for narmafotinib in pancreatic cancer

Amplia Therapeutics announced encouraging preclinical laboratory results for its lead drug narmafotinib, a focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitor. Research led by Professor Paul Timpson at Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, posted on the bioRxiv preprint server, showed that narmafotinib reduced tumour fibrosis, enhanced anti‑tumour activity when combined with chemotherapy, lowered metastatic spread, and down‑regulated genes associated with chemotherapy resistance in pancreatic cancer models. Company chief executive Dr Chris Burns said the findings strengthen the scientific rationale for moving narmafotinib into clinical development and may also have relevance for ovarian cancer treatment.

The data suggest the drug could improve outcomes by targeting multiple mechanisms that make pancreatic cancer difficult to treat, potentially increasing the effectiveness of existing chemotherapy regimens.