Novartis had previously shared data from the phase 1 study of QEQ278 showing that none of the patients achieved an objective response.\n Novartis has jettisoned an anti-cancer protein from its pipeline after the molecule failed to shrink tumors in 30 patients with advanced disease.The pharma giant halted the phase 1 trial of QEQ278 and has dropped the candidate entirely, a spokesperson confirmed with Fierce Biotech. Novartis had previously shared early data from the trial showing that none of the patients treated with the protein achieved an objective response, with 26 of them halting treatment partway through the trial because their cancer got worse. Patients included in the trial had advanced malignancies and exhausted standard of care treatments.“Following review in 2024, Novartis made the decision to discontinue development of QEQ278 in the phase 1 study,” the spokesperson told Fierce. “This decision was not based on any safety concern and the asset was removed from the Novartis pipeline.”Despite the discontinuation occurring years ago, the trial’s status was only just updated “per protocol” after “the remaining participant recently discontinued study treatment,” the spokesperson added.News of the terminated trial was first reported by ApexOnco. QEQ278 was designed to target a group of proteins that bind to the natural killer group 2D receptor (NKG2D) on the surface of natural killer (NK) cells. Many tumor cells are littered with ligands that bind to NKG2D, which normally, the natural killer cells, could use to identify the cancer and destroy it. As a decoy, these cancers tend to shed some of the ligands into the bloodstream, which distracts the immune cells and allows the tumor to evade detection.With QEQ278, Novartis hoped to both nullify the decoy ligands floating in the body and also attach to the surface of tumor cells and flag them for destruction.Other companies have also tried to target NKG2D ligands, with limited success. For example, Nkarta engineered NK cells to express a boosted NKG2D receptor and saw some early wins in blood cancer, but ultimately dropped the candidate in March 2024 after the response rate plummeted when more patients were treated.Astellas similarly canned an early CAR-T lymphoma candidate using NKG2D in January 2025, which a company spokesperson told Fierce at the time was a “difficult decision” driven by “prioritization efforts.”Novartis’ decision coincides with Biogen discontinuing a combination arm of a phase 2 trial for multiple sclerosis candidate BIIB091. While Biogen is no longer testing the asset in combination with Vumerity (diroximel fumarate) as a “strategic decision,” monotherapy data for BIIB091 is still expected in the second quarter of 2026, a spokesperson told Fierce.
