PDS Biotechnology Corporation has requested a meeting with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to explore an expedited approval pathway for PDS0101 in HPV16-positive head and neck cancer.
The FDA meeting request is based on the final results from its VERSATILE-002 trial and a proposed amendment to the VERSATILE-003 phase 3 trial to reduce the number of patients, while maintaining statistical power, and to add progression free survival (PFS) as an earlier primary endpoint in addition to median overall survival (mOS).
If the PFS endpoint is met, it would allow for an accelerated approval submission to the FDA. While the company’s trial amendment is undergoing review by the FDA, the VERSATILE-003 trial will be temporarily paused.
“The final survival results and durable clinical responses from our VERSATILE-002 trial are very exciting. It’s the first time that a trial in the recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer population has reported a mOS of almost 40 months,” said Frank Bedu-Addo, president and CEO of PDS Biotech.
“The fact that our phase 3 study has mOS as its primary endpoint and PFS as a secondary endpoint inherently lengthens the duration of the trial. To shorten the trial duration, we believe a meeting with the FDA to discuss changes to the current trial protocol to include PFS as an earlier primary endpoint independent of mOS is warranted. We look forward to keeping all PDS Biotech stakeholders informed as our discussions with the FDA progress.”
Kirk Shepard, chief medical officer, said: “Based on the increasing incidence of HPV16-positive head and neck cancer, our goal is to seek the fastest and most cost-effective regulatory pathway to approval. Our goal is to be efficient in providing a well-tolerated treatment without chemotherapy as an option for patients who currently have no effective therapies for this deadly disease. Treatment with PDS0101 for currently enrolled patients in our VERSATILE-003 phase 3 trial will continue during the temporary pause of the trial.”
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