Key points from article :
Calico Life Sciences has been looking to exploit new ways to control lifespan.
43-patient study of a drug called ABBV-CLS-579 has flown under the radar since it was posted on clinicaltrials.gov.
Calico and AbbVie are broadly focused on age-related diseases, including neurodegeneration and cancers.
ABBV-CLS-579, a capsule aimed at inhibiting programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) in solid tumors.
The study has two arms: one with participants receiving escalating doses of ABBV-CLS-579; the other with people receiving escalating doses of the drug plus an undisclosed PD-1 inhibitor.
PD-1-targeting drugs from companies are effective but don't achieve complete responses.
Several companies are working on drugs that combine with other PD-1 inhibitors.
Calico and AbbVie last month received a patent for protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 2.
The idea would be to delete the PTPN2 gene to sensitize tumors to immunotherapy.
