In Trop2 Merck & Co. might have got itself an ADC at least as good as Gilead and Astra/Daiichi’s leaders, for a fraction of the price.
While Gilead Sciences, Inc., AstraZeneca PLC and Pfizer Inc. have spent billions acquiring expertise in antibody-drug conjugates, Merck & Co., Inc. has trodden a different path. Two low-key deals with China’s Kelun brought an early-stage portfolio of ADCs, and the most important of these just yielded its first human data.
That asset is MK-2870, an ADC targeting Trop2 whose Kelun-sponsored lung cancer trial was the subject of poster at the...
Iovance’s Amtagvi won FDA accelerated approval in February, and Adaptimmune’s afami-cel may not be far behind, but cell therapies for solid tumors come with some extra challenges.
The discussant at ASCO’s NSCLC session said the field would need to “manage expectations” as the drugs do not appear to beat chemotherapy in all-comers.
Scrip reporter Alaric DeArment is joined by the Datamonitor Healthcare oncology analysts to review key highlights from the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.
US-based Citeline writer Sarah Karlin-Smith joins Brian Yang and Dexter Yan in China to discuss the US BIOSECURE Act and the recent BIO meeting in San Diego, while Dexter Yan discusses China-related ASCO highlights, in this mixed Chinese- and English-language episode.
AstraZeneca’s NIAGARA trial of perioperative Imfinzi in bladder cancer was positively received at the ESMO meeting but its design did not distinguish the contributions of each treatment portion to the overall effect – something that the US FDA is likely to have a view on.
Persistence has paid off for Incyte’s Zynyz in anal cancer with a Phase III win that should make up for a previous disappointment at the FDA and give a boost to the firm’s pipeline prospects for a post-Jakafi era.
Sutro Biopharma CEO Bill Newell spoke with Scrip about the company’s novel platform, its goal of improving folate receptor alpha-driven ovarian cancer and its business development strategy.
