Dive Brief:
- Enzastaurin is a kinase inhibitor of the PKC beta and AKT pathways. Lilly developed the drug and was pursuing various cancer-related indications in clinical trials.
- Lilly gave up on enzastaurin after it failed a phase III trial for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).
- Denovo sees potential in enzastaurin and plans to initiate a biomarker validation clinical trial on the compound.
Dive Insight:
Lilly is done with enzastaurin after the latest phase III failure in DLBCL trials -- but San Diego-based Denovo thinks that there is still potential for this indication.
The reason? During the DLBLC trials, “a meaningful subset of patients showed significantly improved progression-free survival,” according to Denovo. The goal now is to use biomarker analysis to determine which patients could potentially benefit from this compound.