A Comparative Pharmacokinetic Study to Evaluate the Bioequivalence and Safety of A Humanized Recombinant Monoclonal Antibody Targeting Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2) with the Reference Herceptin in Healthy Chinese Subjects

Purpose:This study aimed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and bioequivalence of a test humanized recombinant monoclonal antibody targeting Human Epidermal Growth Factor receptor 2 (HER-2) with the reference Herceptin®.Materials and methods:The trial consists of two parts (part I and part II). Part I was an open-label, sequential-cohort dose-escalation study, QLHER2 (test) was intravenous infusion at single doses escalating from 0.2 to 6 mg/kg (0.2, 1, 2, 4 and 6mg/kg) and Herceptin(reference) 4 mg/kg in 16 healthy subjects, to evaluated the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of QLHER2. Part II was a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group study to evaluate the bioequivalence of QLHER2 and Herceptin in 60 subjects.Results:Following a 1.5-h intravenous infusion of single ascending doses of QLHER2 (1, 2, 4, or 6 mg/kg) In part I, Cmax and Tmax were 19.43-120.01 μg/mL and 68.91-157.87 h, respectively. AUC0-t and CL were 1.91-34.21 h*μg/mL and 0.54-0.12 ml/h/kg, indicating decreased clearance at higher doses, with a greater than proportional increase in the AUC0-t , and the t1/2 was 68.91-157.87 h. In part II, Plasma concentrations appeared to be comparable between QLHER2 and Herceptin over the 70-day sampling period and the QLHER2/Herceptin ratio of the Cmax and AUC0-t was 105.90% (90% CI: 95.69-117.26) and 95.79% (90% CI: 87.74-106.40%), respectively.Conclusion:The 90% CIs of the Cmax and AUC0-t for QLHER2/Herceptin ratio were within the range of 80.0-125.00% indicated that QLHER2 was bioequivalent to Herceptin. The results supported for further evaluation of QLHER2.Trial registration number: ChiCTR2000041577 and ChiCTR2100041802Date of registration: December 30,2020 and January 5, 2021