Arcus Biosciences’ Pancreatic Cancer Drug Quemliclustat Receives Orphan Drug Designation from FDA

Arcus Biosciences Inc. (NYSE:RCUS) is one of the biotech stocks to buy according to Wall Street analysts. On July 10, Arcus Biosciences announced that quemliclustat, which is the company’s investigational small-molecule CD73 inhibitor, was granted Orphan Drug Designation by the US FDA for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.

This designation is intended to expedite the development of new treatments for rare diseases affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US. Pancreatic cancer is a particularly aggressive and rare disease, with an estimated 67,440 Americans expected to be diagnosed in 2025. It holds the highest mortality rate among all major cancers, with ~50% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma/PDAC cases diagnosed in the metastatic setting, which has a dismal 5-year survival rate of only 3%.

A pharmaceutical sales rep holding a medicine pack, highlighting the drug candidate products.

The orphan drug designation for quemliclustat follows promising results from the Phase 1 ARC-8 study, presented in January last year. This study demonstrated no new safety signals and a median overall survival of 15.7 months in a pooled analysis of all patients treated with 100mg quemliclustat-based regimens.

Arcus Biosciences Inc. (NYSE:RCUS) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes cancer therapies in the US.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.