Cancer
At the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting this weekend, Merck will showcase three late-stage trials of its Kelun-Biotech–partnered TROP2-directed antibody sac-TMT that VP of Chemistry Alan Northrup says gets the payload release “just right.”
China cracks down on some biotechnology ownership transfers—but will the new policy impact licensing deals?; Disc Medicine’s Phase 3 data sweep redeems rejected rare disease therapy, teeing up another FDA run; and the ESMO conference gets underway in Madrid this week, with much-anticipated data from Merck, and Summit Therapeutics.
Bracing for patent losses on its cornerstone product Darzalex, Genmab has bet its future on three cancer programs that will deliver pivotal readouts in quick succession.
At the European Society of Medical Oncology meeting in Madrid this weekend, analysts will be watching for detailed data on Merck and Moderna’s personalized cancer vaccine, Summit and Akeso’s PD-1xVEGF bispecific therapy, and a host of antibody-drug conjugates.
As trispecifics, cell engagers and other complex formats multiply, drug developers are seeking discovery and engineering partners to help navigate an expanding universe of molecular possibilities.
A new biotech co-founded by Paul Stoffels has formed to take on the CAR T cell assets of Galapagos almost a year after the company—now known as Lakefront Biotherapeutics—abandoned them.
The Gilead Sciences deal, which include $135 million in upfront and near-term payments, marks a critical platform validation for Vir Biotechnology as investors await an upcoming readout in solid tumors.
Revolution Medicines’ recently approved drug showed a 24% overall response rate and a high rate of side effects in patients whose cancer has a G12D mutation, reinforcing Mizuho’s view that a more specific agent such as Verastem Oncology’s VS-7375 “should come first for G12D patients.”
Johnson & Johnson beat analyst expectations in the third quarter but left Wall Street wanting more; BMS dominated the news cycle on Monday with a Phase 3 win validating its $4.1 billion RayzeBio buy and mixed data in a late-stage pulmonary fibrosis trial; Revolution Medicines’ newly approved pancreatic cancer drug works better for patients with certain mutations; and Caribou Biosciences may be on its way out.
While BNT113 failed to improve progression-free survival in patients with a type of head and neck cancer during a Phase 3 trial, BioNTech is holding out hope for an overall survival win—but analysts say that outcome is now “less likely.”
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