Arvinas Moves Ahead With 2 New Drugs

A growing New Haven biopharma company won ​“fast-track” federal review for a drug it’s developing to fight breast cancer.

Meanwhile it administered the first human test dose of another drug it has under development, to tackle neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s.

Arvinas, a $2 billion anchor of New Haven’s growing biopharma industry, marked those two milestones as it enters its second decade of operation in Science Park.

Ron Peck, the company’s chief medical officer, discussed those milestones, and what comes next, in a conversation Tuesday on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program.

Peck left a career as an oncologist for more than two decades to move into the drug development side of health care. ​“I wanted to be part of the solution,” he said. After stints at companies like Bristol Myers Squibb and Koltan Pharmaceuticals, he assumed the post at Arvinas four and a half years ago.

He said the company’s breast-cancer drug, called vepdegestrant, aims to degrade estrogen receptors in order to shrink tumors and prolong the lives of patients with stage 4 or metastatic cancer. Vepdegestrant has the potential to be more effective than current therapies that work through the estrogen receptor like tamoxifen and related treatments, and would be an alternative to radiation and chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer patients. The drug aims to degrade estrogen receptors in order to shrink tumors and prolong the lives of stage 4 patients.

“Breast cancer will pick up estrogen that is circulating in the body. It is fuel for the cancer. This drug directly degrades the estrogen receptor protein and removes it from the cancer cell by a unique mechanism,” Peck said. He said Arvinas’s drugs are designed to ​“hijack the cell’s own machinery for getting rid of proteins — either overabundant proteins or unnatural proteins.”

One of eight women diagnosed with breast cancer is in stage 4, and 80 percent of those have estrogen receptors, the focus of Arvinas’ drug. Eventually the hope is for vepdegestrant to cure some patients as well as slow down disease. 

The company successfully applied for the fast-tack designation from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its work on vepdegestrant. That means the company will get faster reviews at each step of the process. Pfizer has come on as a partner on the drug’s development, another boost in getting it to market.

Meanwhile, the first human received a dose in a clinical trial for ARV-102, a drug Arvinas is developing to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

“This is a big milestone,” Peck said. The drug is designed to cross the brain barrier to degrade an enzyme that plays a central role in Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy.

The current trial, taking place with healthy volunteers in the Netherlands, will test the drug’s impact on the body.

Unlike with cancer drugs, these drugs can be initially tested on nonpatients, Peck said.

“You take healthy volunteers. You measure blood levels. You learn how the drug behaves in the body. Then when you get that information you start to do trials in patients.”

Arvinas is also working on drugs to treat prostate cancer. It has grown to almost 450 employees; next year it plans to move into three floors of the 101 College St. biotower while still keeping its current space at Science Park.

Click on the above video to watch the conversation with Arvinas Chief Medical Officer Ron Peck on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of Dateline New Haven.