Oncology Pipeline

Loxo@Lilly aims to create medicines that make life better for all those affected by cancer around the world. Bringing together the focus and spirit of a biotech with the scale, resources, and heritage of Lilly, our team is focused on rapidly delivering impactful new medicines for people with cancer. Our approach centers on creating oncology medicines that unequivocally show early signs of clinical activity and will matter to patients.

RET Inhibitor

Selpercatinib

Mulligan LM¹

Target

Rearranged during transfection (RET) fusions have been identified in approximately 2% of non-small cell lung cancer,^2,3 10% to 20% of papillary thyroid cancer,^4,5 and a subset of colon and other cancers.^6-8 RET point mutations account for approximately 60% of medullary thyroid cancer.^9-11 Cancers that harbor activating RET fusions or RET mutations depend primarily on this single constitutively activated kinase for their proliferation and survival. This dependency renders such tumors highly susceptible to small-molecule inhibitors targeting RET.

Molecule

Selpercatinib is a highly selective, potent, CNS-active small-molecule inhibitor of RET. Selpercatinib possesses nanomolar potency against diverse RET alterations, including RET fusions, activating RET point mutations, and acquired resistance mutations. Selpercatinib has been shown in vitro and in vivo to exhibit high selectivity for RET, with limited activity against other tyrosine kinases.^12,13

Clinical Development

Selpercatinib is being investigated in clinical trials in patients with RET-associated medullary thyroid cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, papillary thyroid carcinoma, pediatric cancer, and other advanced solid tumors.

References

Mulligan LM. Nat Rev Cancer. 2014;14:173-186.
Lipson D, et al. Nat Med. 2012;18(3):382-384.
Takeuchi K, et al. Nat Med. 2012;18(3):378-381.
Bounacer A, et al. Oncogene. 1997;15(11):1263-1273.
Prescott JD, Zeiger MA. Cancer. 2015;121(13):2137-2146.
Ballerini P, et al. Leukemia. 2012;26(11):2384-2389.
Bossi D, et al. Mol Oncol. 2014;8(2):221-231.
Stransky N, et al. Nat Commun. 2014;5:4846.
Hofstra RM, et al. Nature. 1994;367(6461):375-376.
Agrawal N, et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013;98(2):E364-E369.
Taccaliti A, et al. Curr Genomics. 2011;12(8):618-625.
Subbiah V, et al. Ann Oncol. 2018;29:1869-1876.
Drilon A, et al. LIBRETTO-001: A phase 1 study of LOXO-292, a potent and highly selective RET inhibitor, in patients with RET-altered cancers. Presented at: ASCO Annual Meeting; June 1-5, 2018; Chicago, IL.

The safety and efficacy of the agents under investigation have not been established. There is no guarantee that the agents will receive regulatory approval and become commercially available for the uses being investigated.

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