FOSTER CITY, Calif., April 10, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Apollomics Inc. (“Apollomics” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing medicines to address difficult-to-treat cancers, presented two posters at the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, held April 5-10, 2024 in San Diego, Calif. Copies of the posters are available on the Apollomics website at ir.apollomicsinc.com/news-events/presentations.

“Vebreltinib’s selectivity and high in vivo potency against multiple tumor types in a variety of patient-derived tumor models demonstrate its potential to treat a variety of MET-altered tumors, as a single agent or in combination,” said Guo-Liang Yu, PhD, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Apollomics. “Based on preclinical models established from patients, we believe vebreltinib may also provide meaningful clinical benefit towards overcoming or preventing MET-amplification dependent resistance in EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.”

The first poster presented, titled, “Vebreltinib: A novel brain-penetrating MET kinase inhibitor demonstrates the mechanism of action and pharmacological anti-tumor activity in diverse patient-derived MET-dysregulated tumor models at clinically relevant drug levels,” demonstrated that vebreltinib is a novel potent and selective MET kinase inhibitor showing promising preclinical activity against patient-derived tumors from diverse organ sites and genomic alterations such as MET exon 14 skipping, MET fusion, MET amplification, or MET and hepatocyte growth factor over-expression at clinically relevant drug levels, providing proof-of-concepts for continued clinical development.

The second poster presented, titled, “Dependence of EGFR-mutant NSCLC on MET as demonstrated by vebreltinib, a novel and selective brain-penetrating MET kinase inhibitor,” demonstrated that adding vebreltinib to EGFR therapies overcomes MET-amplification dependent resistance with durable effect or prevents MET-dependent resistance to maximize therapeutic benefits.

About vebreltinib (APL-101)

Vebreltinib is a potent, small molecule, orally bioavailable, brain penetrating and highly selective c-MET inhibitor. It works by inhibiting the aberrant activation of the HGF/MET axis, a key pathway involved in tumor growth, proliferation, and the development of resistance to certain targeted therapies such as osimertinib. By targeting MET dysregulation, vebreltinib offers a potential breakthrough for many cancers driven by MET alterations.

Vebreltinib has demonstrated strong tumor inhibitory effect in a variety of preclinical c-MET dysregulated human gastric, hepatic, pancreatic and lung cancer xenograft animal models and patient-derived xenograft models (PDX). In Phase 1 clinical trials, vebreltinib (bozitinib or PLB1001) demonstrated a generally well-tolerated safety profile with preliminary evidence of clinical activity in NSCLC subjects harboring a mutation that leads to MET Exon14 skipping and in secondary glioblastoma multiforme (sGBM) patients harboring MET fusion and/or exon 14 skipping with evidence of brain penetration. In China, vebreltinib is referred to as bozitinib, or PLB1001, where it is being developed by Apollomics' partner Avistone Biotechnology Co. Ltd. KUNPENG study results were presented at the 2023 European Society of Medical Oncology Congress on October 23, 2023. The presentation showed that vebreltinib-treated patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC harboring c-MET exon-14 skipping mutation achieved an overall response rate (ORR) of 75%. Among other notable findings, ORR and DCR were 100% in patients with brain metastases (n=5) and ORR was 66.7% in patients with liver metastases (n=6).

Details on the Phase 1/2 SPARTA global clinical trial can be found on clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03175224. Apollomics is actively assessing the potential of vebreltinib in combination with novel therapies and in a variety of tumor types in addition to developing vebreltinib as single-agent cancer therapy. Vebreltinib received conditional approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China.

About Apollomics Inc.

Apollomics Inc. is an innovative clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of oncology therapies with the potential to be combined with other treatment options to harness the immune system and target specific molecular pathways to inhibit cancer. Apollomics currently has a pipeline of nine drug candidates across multiple programs, six of which are currently in the clinical stage of development. Apollomics’ lead programs include vebreltinib (APL-101), a potent, selective c-Met inhibitor for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and other advanced tumors with c-Met alterations, and uproleselan (APL-106), a specific E-Selectin antagonist that has the potential to be used adjunctively with standard chemotherapy to treat acute myeloid leukemia. For more information, please visit www.apollomicsinc.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes statements that constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the words “potential,” “could,” “should,” “will,” “may,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “look,” “forward,” the negative of such terms and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. Apollomics cautions you that its forward-looking statements are subject to unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the Company’s forward-looking statements, including: (i) the impact of any current or new government regulations in the United States and China affecting Apollomics’ operations and the continued listing of Apollomics’ securities; (ii) the inability to achieve successful clinical results or to obtain licensing of third-party intellectual property rights for future discovery and development of Apollomics’ oncology projects; (iii) the failure to commercialize product candidates and achieve market acceptance of such product candidates; (iv) the failure to protect intellectual property, and the risk of litigious claims, proceedings, litigation or other types of disputes related to Apollomics’ business, licenses or intellectual property; (v) breaches in data security; (vi) the risk that Apollomics may not be able to develop and maintain effective internal controls; (vii) unfavorable changes to the regulatory environment; and those risks and uncertainties discussed in the Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2023, filed by Apollomics Inc. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on March 28, 2024, under the heading “Risk Factors” and the other documents filed, or to be filed, by the Company with the SEC. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact the Company can be found in the reports that Apollomics has filed and will file from time to time with the SEC. These SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made by the Company. Apollomics undertakes no obligation to update publicly any of its forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, new information or future events, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law.

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