BRISBANE, Calif., March 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tempest Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: TPST), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing first-in-classⁱ targeted and immune-mediated therapeutics to fight cancer, today announced a poster presentation at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2024 Spring Scientific Meeting highlighting preclinical data showing potent anti-tumor activity in several cancer models treated with TPST-1120 alone or with immune checkpoint inhibitors. The presentation covered experimental results that corroborated clinical biomarker data from patients with advanced solid tumor cancers treated in a Phase 1 trial with TPST-1120 showing increased expression of select immune-related genes and elevated plasma Free Fatty Acid (FFA) levels associated with clinical response. TPST-1120 is an oral, selective PPAR⍺ antagonist in clinical development that has shown promising results, including positive data from a randomized study in first-line hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients compared to the standard of care.

“Data presented at the SITC Spring Scientific Meeting bolster our mechanistic understanding of PPARα blockade in cancer patients and reinforce a basis for the ongoing late-stage clinical development of TPST-1120,” said Sam Whiting, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer and head of R&D at Tempest. “Based on positive Phase 1 and 2 data, we are planning a pivotal study in patients with first-line liver cancer, and we also look forward to evaluating the potential of TPST-1120 in additional cancer indications.”

In preclinical models of liver, colon and pancreatic cancer, TPST-1120 elicited a greater than 50% inhibition of tumor growth with enhanced inhibition observed in liver and colon cancer models when co-administered with anti-PD-1. In addition, biomarker results from the Phase 1 clinical trial of TPST-1120 in multiple solid tumor indications showed statistically significant, exposure-dependent elevations in expression levels of multiple immune-related genes, and patients exhibiting objective responses displayed increased circulating free fatty acids (FFA), both of which are in-line with the proposed TPST-1120 mechanism of action. Clinical response and biomarker findings support that inhibition of PPARα may be an effective therapeutic strategy for the treatment of cancer.

These findings complement positive data reported in October 2023 from a global randomized phase 1b/2 study of TPST-1120 in combination with atezolizumab and bevacizumab in first-line patients with advanced HCC. The differentiating data showed clinical superiority of the TPST-1120 arm across multiple study endpoints and relevant biomarker-defined patient subpopulations when compared to atezolizumab and bevacizumab alone, the standard of care in first-line HCC.