All of the regular ASCO abstracts dropped Thursday afternoon, with the biggest news coming from the
VEGF bispecific race
, Merck and Kelun-Biotech’s
TROP2 ADC
known as sac-TMT, and multiple
head and neck cancer updates
.
But there were plenty of other developments across cancer trials and new mechanisms, and we’ve rounded up the best of the rest here. Find updates below on potential successors for Pfizer’s blockbuster Ibrance, the Tubulis data that got Gilead Sciences excited enough to buy it out, and more.
Both Pfizer and BeOne Medicines (formerly BeiGene) are developing CDK4 inhibitors in a bid to take up Ibrance’s mantle in breast cancer, as the first Ibrance biosimilars are expected as soon as next year.
For Pfizer, the successor is called atirmociclib. The drugmaker
toplined
a separate Phase 2 success earlier this year in HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, but an abstract released Thursday supplemented those results. Patients received either a combination of atirmociclib and an aromatase inhibitor called letrozole, or letrozole alone.
Efficacy was measured with an endpoint called “complete cell cycle arrest,” or CCCA, which examines how quickly patients’ tumor cells stopped dividing. After 14 days, 45 of 51 patients (88.2%) who took the combination regimen saw their cell division slow by a meaningful amount, compared to 10 of 56 (17.9%) who only received letrozole.
The data come from patients with advanced breast cancer who progressed after treatment with a CDK4/6 inhibitor (including Ibrance). Pfizer enrolled patients whose tumor cells were dividing rapidly.
BeOne, meanwhile, is researching a program called BGB-43395 and reported data from a safety expansion cohort of a Phase 2 study, also looking at a combination with letrozole. The company has enrolled 58 patients so far across three dosing regimens. After a median follow-up of 6.8 months, the median time-to-response was 3.6 months and progression-free survival was not reached.
Unlike these experimental drugs, Ibrance is a CDK4/6 inhibitor. Global Ibrance sales peaked in 2022 with $5.12 billion. In 2025, Ibrance was selected for the second round of price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act, with new prices expected to be implemented for patients with Medicare starting next year.
Gilead paid $3.15 billion upfront last month
to acquire
the ADC-focused biotech Tubulis, and an ASCO abstract released Thursday attempts to show why.
The biotech’s lead program is called TUB-040, a NaPi2b-directed ADC that is in testing for certain forms of ovarian cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Tubulis administered the drug to patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer across four dose levels in a Phase 1/2a study, 46 of whom could be evaluated for efficacy.
Of those 46 patients, 28 saw their tumors shrink by at least 30%, good for a confirmed objective response rate of 60.9%. Responses were spread almost evenly across all dose levels, with seven patients responding in each of the two lowest doses, eight responding in the third level and six responding at the highest dose.
Gilead and Tubulis initially signed a partnership in 2024 before this year’s buyout. Gilead could pay another $1.85 billion if all milestones in the deal are met.
Earlier this month, the FDA
approved
Pfizer and Arvinas’ drug vepdegestrant (brand name: Veppanu) for patients with a certain form of breast cancer. But it’s unclear how many patients will take it, and the companies
shipped
the drug’s rights to Rigel Pharmaceuticals for $70 million upfront — a fraction of the $1 billion Pfizer initially paid for the partnership.
Data released Thursday from a Phase 1b/2 study continued to illustrate why the drug has disappointed. In second-line patients with certain ER-positive/HER2-negative breast cancers, Veppanu plus an aromatase inhibitor induced responses in just eight of 33 patients at the highest dose measured (24.2% confirmed ORR). Only five of 31 who received the low dose responded to the therapy.
Response rates were lower in patients with ESR1 mutations, with three of 14 patients (21.4%) responding to the high dose. These mutations are where the expected competition of oral SERDs has largely been a success. Pfizer and Arvinas
presented
Phase 3 data for the drug at last year’s ASCO, showing it was no better than oral SERDs.
AstraZeneca’s B7-H4 ADC:
The drug is called puxitatug samrotecan, or puxi-sam. At its low dose, 14 of 31 patients with endometrial cancer (34.1% ORR) and four of 33 with ovarian cancer (12.1% ORR) saw their tumors shrink by at least 30%. At the high dose, 24 of 50 endometrial cancer patients (48% ORR) and 11 of 45 individuals with ovarian cancer (24.4% ORR) saw the same level of tumor shrinkage.
Median PFS in endometrial cancer was 8.1 months and seven months at the high and low doses, respectively. In ovarian cancer, median PFS was 5.7 months at the high dose and 4.8 months at the low dose.
Additionally, the company released very early data from a cohort looking at patients with biliary tract cancer. After a median follow-up of 2.2 months, two of 20 patients saw their tumors shrink by at least 30%, good for an ORR of 10%. The company hopes more patients will respond after longer periods of time.
Immuneering posts more pancreatic cancer results:
The biotech rolled out another update for its oral MEK inhibitor atebimetinib, after
multiple positive
updates in the last
12 months
measuring it in combination with chemotherapy. After a median follow-up of 10.4 months, median PFS was 8.4 months and median overall survival was not reached among 50 patients. Six- and nine-month OS rates were 88% and 79%, respectively.
AstraZeneca’s Neogene data:
The first data from AstraZeneca’s 2022
buyout
of Neogene were released Thursday, showing results from the NT-175 program in patients with TP53 mutations in solid tumors. Investigators said 10 of 21 patients who received the therapy responded after a median six months of follow-up. This included five of six patients with pancreatic cancer who took part in the study. NT-175 is an autologous engineered T-cell receptor (eTCR) T cell therapy.
Replimune’s three-year survival rates:
The company’s therapy RP1, which was
rejected twice by the FDA
, achieved a three-year OS rate of 45.5% in patients with advanced melanoma. Patients got RP1 along with the anti-PD-1 drug Opdivo after previously failing anti-PD-1 therapy.