AbbVie has scrapped an asset from its ongoing collaboration with Dragonfly Therapeutics, a spokesperson for the Chicago pharma confirmed to Fierce Biotech.
“We have terminated clinical activity around ABBV-303,” the spokesperson said, alluding to a phase 1 solid tumor trial of the natural killer (NK) cell engager. “However, our partnership with Dragonfly is still ongoing.”
The study was terminated in light of “strategic considerations," according to its entry on the federal trial database clinicaltrials.gov. AbbVie and Dragonfly were testing ABBV-303 alone and in combination with AbbVie's anti-PD-1 antibody budigalimab (ABBV-181).
Dragonfly did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Fierce.
ABBV-303 was the first asset from the AbbVie-Dragonfly team-up to hit the clinic, triggering a milestone payment for Dragonfly in March 2024. The duo forged their pact in 2019 and expanded it in 2022 to include additional targets, with a focus on oncology and autoimmune diseases.
AbbVie was studying the candidate in solid tumors expressing c-Met, the company spokesperson said, which is a receptor protein commonly found on the surface of tumor cells.
“This termination does not impact our commitment to continue advancing c-Met targeted therapies,” the spokesperson added.
Dragonfly’s pipeline is packed with Big Pharma collaborations and a clutch of wholly owned assets, the most advanced of which is DF1001, a HER2-targeting NK cell engager currently in a phase 1/2 trial for non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic breast cancer.
Alongside the AbbVie partnership, buzzy Dragonfly has also taken flight with Merck, Gilead and Bristol Myers Squibb, with BMS also once dumping an asset back into Dragonfly’s pond.