Cancer
Summit Therapeutics revealed positive Western data last week from a Phase 3 trial of lung cancer candidate ivonescimab. In a flipped geographical clinical trials landscape, what more will be required for Summit and China-based partner Akeso—and other transnational tandems—to secure FDA approval?
Safety will be the key determinant of in vivo CAR T therapies, according to H.C. Wainwright’s Mitchel Kapoor, who noted that convenience and efficacy won’t be enough to impress investors in this space. Eli Lilly, AbbVie, AstraZeneca and more are up for the challenge.
Summit’s star asset is the PD-1/VEGF bispecific ivonescimab, which this week produced promising survival data from a late-stage global trial in non-small cell lung cancer. The FDA review is ongoing with a decision expected by Nov. 14.
Jideytro is GSK’s first approved product for lung cancer. With its takeover of Nuvalent Bio last month and a deal with Hansoh Pharmaceutical in 2023, the pharma now has several other lung cancer assets in late-stage development.
Summit Therapeutics and Akeso are answering questions raised about ivonescimab’s ability to translate to Western populations, though the partners have yet to share if the new findings are statistically significant.
The discontinued asset, being trialed for breast cancer and solid tumors, had yielded disappointing data, leading to Novartis’ decision to abandon development, according to a company spokesperson.
Eighteen companies have gone public this year so far, putting 2026 on pace to record the highest number of IPOs since the pandemic-driven high of 2021.
The Phase 3 results are the first direct proof-of-concept for an ADC replacing platinum-based chemo in a first-line standard-of-care regimen for non-small cell lung cancer, according to Leerink Partners. The readout also represents the second late-stage win for the Merck and Kelun-Biotech asset, called sac-TMT.
Just weeks after Pfizer’s Seagen-acquired antibody-drug conjugate sigvotatug vedotin failed a Phase 3 non-small cell lung cancer study, the big pharma has quietly culled another program being developed by the ADC specialist.
Celcuity’s first approved drug, Revtorpyk, is indicated for the second-line treatment of advanced HER2- breast cancer patients without PIK3CA mutations—a key use distinction that sets it apart from other PIK3/AKT blockers in the space, according to Jefferies.
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