WALTHAM, Mass. and BOULDER, Colo. — Cogent Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: COGT), a biotechnology company focused on developing precision therapies for genetically defined diseases, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) for bezuclastinib in combination with sunitinib for patients with Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST) who have received prior treatment with imatinib.
“We are excited to announce this Breakthrough Therapy Designation which recognizes the potential for the bezuclastinib combination to substantially improve upon the currently available treatment options for patients with imatinib-resistant GIST,” said Andrew Robbins, Cogent’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We look forward to the continued collaboration with the FDA as we work to bring the first new treatment option in over twenty years to this patient population.”
This Breakthrough Therapy Designation is based on results from the PEAK trial which demonstrated a substantial and highly statistically significant clinical benefit on the primary endpoint of progression free survival (PFS), reducing risk of disease progression or death compared to the current standard of care by 50% (hazard ratio of 0.50, 95% CI: 0.39 – 0.65). mPFS, as assessed by blinded independent central review, was 16.5 months for the bezuclastinib combination vs. 9.2 months for sunitinib monotherapy. The combination was well tolerated, and no new safety risks were observed when compared to the known safety profile of sunitinib. Breakthrough Therapy Designation is intended to expedite the review of medicines that treat a serious or life-threatening condition and have shown clinical evidence indicating the potential for substantial improvement over available therapies.
Earlier this month, the FDA agreed to accept Cogent’s NDA under the FDA’s Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) program which allows an applicant to pre-submit components of its NDA to allow the FDA to review clinical trial data before the complete filing is submitted and aims to provide a more efficient review process to ensure safe and effective treatments are available to patients as early as possible.
Cogent plans to present full results from the PEAK trial at a major medical meeting during the first half of 2026. Additionally, in mid-2026 Cogent expects to initiate a Phase 2 trial investigating the benefit of the bezuclastinib plus sunitinib combination for first-line GIST patients with exon 9 mutations who are naive to, or recently initiated treatment with, imatinib.
About Cogent Biosciences, Inc.
Cogent Biosciences is a biotechnology company focused on developing precision therapies for genetically defined diseases. The most advanced clinical program, bezuclastinib, is a selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is designed to potently inhibit the KIT D816V mutation as well as other mutations in KIT exon 17. KIT D816V is responsible for driving systemic mastocytosis, a serious disease caused by unchecked proliferation of mast cells. Exon 17 mutations are also found in patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), a type of cancer with strong dependence on oncogenic KIT signaling. In addition to bezuclastinib, the Cogent Research Team is developing a portfolio of novel targeted therapies to help patients fighting serious, genetically driven diseases initially targeting mutations in FGFR2/3, ErbB2, PI3Kα, KRAS and JAK2. Cogent Biosciences is based in Waltham, MA and Boulder, CO. Visit our website for more information at www.cogentbio.com. Follow Cogent Biosciences on social media: X (formerly known as Twitter) and LinkedIn. Information that may be important to investors will be routinely posted on our website and X.
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