NanoCarrier announced that on October 24 to 25, at the 32nd EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium, the company presented favorable results of the NC-6004 Phase IIa clinical study for head and neck cancer in combination therapy of NC-6004 plus Keytruda, an immune checkpoint inhibitor. The maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of NC-6004 was not identified and the recommended dose (RD) of NC-6004 was concluded to be 135 mg/m2. Partial response (PR) was seen in 4 patients. The overall response rate (ORR) was 25% and the disease control rate was 87.5%. The median progression-free survival (mPFS) was 4.0 months for the overall population, and 5.2 months for 6 patients receiving 135 mg/m2 of NC-6004 which is the RD in Phase IIb. The safety profile was favorable and dose limiting toxicity (DLT) was not observed. One patient (6.3%) experienced serious adverse events. This clinical study showed more favorable efficacy compared with the Keynote-040 Phase III clinical study of pembrolizumab (Keytruda), where the overall response rate was 14.6% and the mPFS was 2.1 months. Based on these positive results for the Phase IIa part, NanoCarrier has great expectations for results in Phase IIb, in which NC-6004 plus Keytruda is compared with Keytruda alone. The company are proceeding with preparations for the Phase IIb clinical study, and expecting patient recruitment within this year.