BASEL, SWITZERLAND-- November 02, 2021 -- Rhizen Pharmaceuticals AG (Rhizen), a Switzerland-based privately held, clinical-stage oncology & inflammation-focused biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has commenced dosing in a multi-center, phase I/Ib trial to evaluate its novel poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor (RP12146) in patients with advanced solid tumors. This two-part multi-center phase I/Ib study is being conducted in Europe and has been designed to initially determine safety, tolerability, maximum tolerated dose (MTD), and/or recommended phase II dose (RP2D) of RP12146 and to subsequently assess its anti-tumor activity in expansion cohorts with HRR mutation-enriched ES-SCLC, ovarian and breast cancer patients.

Rhizen indicated that RP12146 has shown preclinical activity and efficacy comparable to the approved PARP inhibitor Olaparib, and shows improved safety as seen in the preclinical IND-enabling toxicology studies; an advantage that Rhizen hopes will translate in the clinical studies. Rhizen also announced that its PARP program is part of a larger DNA Damage Response (DDR) platform effort, which includes a preclinical-stage polymerase theta (Polθ) inhibitor program. Rhizen expects the platform to enable novel proprietary combinations of its PARP and Polθ assets given the mechanistic synergy and opportunity across PARP resistant/refractory settings.

“PARP inhibitors are a great success story in the DNA damage response area, but they are not without safety concerns that have limited realization of their full potential. Although our novel PARP inhibitor is competing in a crowded space, we expect its superior preclinical safety to translate into the clinic which will differentiate our program and allow us to extend its application beyond the current landscape of approved indications and combinations”, said Swaroop Vakkalanka, Founder & CEO of Rhizen Pharma. Swaroop also added that “Our PARP program is foundational for our DDR platform efforts and will be the backbone for several novel proprietary combinations that we hope to bring into development going forward.”