Inhibrx Biosciences said its experimental cancer drug INBRX-106 combined with Merck's Keytruda produced a confirmed objective response rate of 48.3% versus 26.5% for Keytruda alone in the Phase 2 portion of its HexAgon study in treatment-naive, PD-L1-positive metastatic or unresectable recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The study enrolled 68 patients, with 63 evaluable for the primary endpoint, and four patients, or 13.8%, on the combination achieved a complete response versus none on Keytruda alone. Median progression-free survival was 9.6 months for the combination versus 4.9 months for Keytruda alone as of the August 19 data cutoff, and among 10 evaluable HPV-positive patients the confirmed response rate was 80% versus 33.3% among nine patients on Keytruda alone. Inhibrx plans to add approximately 50 HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer patients to the Phase 2 study to support a potential accelerated regulatory pathway, estimating the U.S. could have approximately 30,000 HPV-positive head and neck cancer patients by 2029, including around 6,000 first-line recurrent patients, representing a $1 billion annual sales opportunity. Despite the data, Inhibrx shares fell 8.8% to $110.45, a move CEO Mark Lappe told Reuters the company could not explain, while Stifel analyst Dara Azar called the results competitive against the difficult OX40 target.
AstraZeneca Opens $1 Billion Kendall Square R&D Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts
AstraZeneca has opened its newest global strategic research and development center in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, part of a more than $1 billion investment in the state that will expand its Massachusetts workforce by over 50 percent in the coming years. The 570,000 square foot, 18 story site at 290 Binney Street will house nearly 2,000 researchers and scientists alongside the company's genomic medicine site at 100 Binney Street, and includes ten floors of interconnecting laboratories integrating robotics, continuous automation and agentic AI. The scientists will work on AstraZeneca's oncology, cell therapy, chronic disease and rare disease pipeline, targeting conditions such as COPD, obesity and metabolic disease, breast cancer and rare diseases, while pursuing future innovation in cell therapy and biologics to fuel growth beyond 2030. The Massachusetts investment sits within AstraZeneca's broader $50 billion US investment, and the new site joins its other US-based global strategic research center in Gaithersburg, Maryland, as part of a coast-to-coast footprint of 24 R&D, manufacturing, commercial and corporate sites. Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said Kendall Square is a leading innovation ecosystem and one of the key locations where AstraZeneca will discover the next generation of scientific breakthroughs, while Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey called the investment a major vote of confidence in the state.
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Immuno-Oncology / Checkpoint Capital
AZN.LSE · Capital · Positive AstraZeneca opens a $1B+ Kendall Square R&D center, part of its broader $50B US investment, expanding its Massachusetts workforce by over 50%.
Summit Therapeutics, AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo to Study Ivonescimab Plus Datroway Combos
Summit Therapeutics has signed a clinical collaboration with AstraZeneca and its Japan-based partner Daiichi Sankyo to evaluate ivonescimab in combination with the antibody-drug conjugate Datroway, also known as datopotamab deruxtecan, across multiple solid tumors including breast and lung cancers. The collaboration is expected to initially focus on a phase III study in first-line triple-negative breast cancer, expanding ivonescimab's development into a new tumor type. Under the agreement, each company will supply its respective drug, AstraZeneca or Daiichi will sponsor the planned studies, and the companies will share study costs while retaining development and commercial rights to their own therapies. The Datroway collaboration builds on the larger deal between AstraZeneca and Summit announced in the last week, under which AstraZeneca agreed to invest $2 billion in Summit to accelerate development of ivonescimab, with the companies also set to evaluate ivonescimab alongside AstraZeneca's investigational Claudin-18.2-targeted ADC sonesitatug vedotin, or Sone-Ve, in gastrointestinal cancers. An FDA filing is under review seeking approval for ivonescimab plus chemotherapy in patients with EGFR-mutated, locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC who had progressed following EGFR-TKI treatment, with a final decision expected by Nov. 14, 2026.
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Oncology Therapeutics ▲Capital
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Immuno-Oncology / Checkpoint ▲Capital
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADC) ▲Capital
4568.JP · Technology · Positive Daiichi Sankyo's Datroway (datopotamab deruxtecan) will be evaluated in combination with ivonescimab across multiple solid tumors, including a phase III triple-negative breast cancer study
AZN.LSE · Technology · Positive AstraZeneca will co-sponsor and supply its Datroway ADC in a new phase III combination study with ivonescimab, expanding its oncology pipeline
AstraZeneca Closes $2 Billion Equity Investment in Summit Therapeutics
Summit Therapeutics announced the closing of AstraZeneca's $2.0 billion strategic equity investment in the company. Under the Securities Purchase Agreement, AstraZeneca purchased approximately 108,955 shares of preferred stock convertible into Summit common stock at a 1:1,000 ratio, representing a common stock price of $18.36, a premium over the closing trading price on the day the investment was announced. The proceeds will support accelerated development of ivonescimab, a potential first-in-class investigational PD-1 / VEGF bispecific antibody, across solid tumor settings including combinations with antibody drug conjugates such as sonesitatug vedotin and Datroway. Summit Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer Robert W. Duggan said the investment reflects AstraZeneca's confidence in Summit and in ivonescimab's potential to redefine cancer treatment. Baker Hostetler LLP is serving as legal advisor to Summit.
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Oncology Therapeutics ▲Capital
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Immuno-Oncology / Checkpoint ▲Capital
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADC) ▲Capital
AZN.LSE · Capital · Positive AstraZeneca closed a $2.0 billion strategic equity investment in Summit Therapeutics, a major financing/M&A event for AstraZeneca.
Alligator Bioscience Names CFO Johan Giléus as CEO, Søren Bregenholt to Step Down at Year-End
Alligator Bioscience has appointed Johan Giléus, currently CFO, as its new Chief Executive Officer effective 1 January 2027, with Søren Bregenholt remaining CEO until 31 December 2026 to ensure a seamless transition. Giléus will combine the CEO and CFO roles, reflecting the company's strategic refocusing towards its financial interest in the HER2-targeting antibody programme HLX22, as announced on 23 July 2026. Following the transition, Alligator will operate with a minimal organisation, supported by the Board of Directors and external consultants. Chairman Hans-Peter Ostler thanked Bregenholt for five years of leadership through a demanding period for the biotech sector, noting that the outcome with mitazalimab did not meet expectations, and said Giléus knows Alligator and its financial interest in HLX22 in depth. Giléus has more than 30 years of senior experience, including the last nine years in the Swedish biotech industry, and joined Alligator as CFO in August 2024 after leaving Deloitte Sweden's partnership in 2015. Alligator, listed on Nasdaq Stockholm under ATORX and headquartered in Lund, Sweden, has discontinued further internal development of mitazalimab and is seeking to out-license or divest the asset.
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Oncology Therapeutics ▼Capital
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Immuno-Oncology / Checkpoint ▼Capital
Alligator Bioscience AB · Capital · Negative CEO transition to a minimal organisation after discontinuing mitazalimab development and refocusing on the HLX22 financial interest signals a strategic retreat
Agenus Reports 48% Three-Year Survival for BOT+BAL in Recurrent Ovarian Cancer
Agenus Inc. announced three-year follow-up results from the ovarian cancer cohort of its 400+ patient Phase 1b C-800-01 trial, showing an estimated 48% three-year overall survival for botensilimab plus balstilimab in recurrent ovarian cancer. The estimate was unchanged from two years, with median overall survival of 14.8 months, a 23% objective response rate among 35 evaluable patients, and a median duration of response of 9.7 months. At last follow-up, 25% of the 44 patients who received at least one dose, 11 in total, were alive and off all therapy. The heavily pretreated population had received a median of four prior lines of therapy, 77% had received bevacizumab and 57% a PARP inhibitor, and nearly three-quarters had platinum-resistant or refractory disease; estimated three-year survival was 47% in that subgroup and 61% in the 17 patients whose disease had progressed on a PARP inhibitor. The data were presented by Rebecca L. Porter of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at the 2026 International Gynecologic Cancer Society Annual Global Meeting in Montréal, and Agenus said no new safety signals or treatment-related deaths were reported.
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Oncology Therapeutics ▲Technology
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Immuno-Oncology / Checkpoint ▲Technology
AGEN · Technology · Positive Agenus reported positive three-year follow-up data for botensilimab plus balstilimab in recurrent ovarian cancer, with 48% three-year overall survival and no new safety signals.
J&J Innovative Medicine Set for Q3 Growth Led by Oncology
Johnson & Johnson is scheduled to report its third-quarter 2026 results on Oct. 13, with investors focused on sales performance in its Innovative Medicine segment. The segment has posted five consecutive quarters of sales above $15 billion despite the loss of exclusivity of Stelara, and J&J expects continued above-market growth driven by Darzalex, Erleada, Carvykti, Tecvayli and Rybrevant/Lazcluze in oncology, Tremfya and other immunology products, and Spravato and Caplyta in neuroscience. Newer launches are expected to contribute more than in the second quarter, with Inlexzo sales more than doubling sequentially from around $30 million in the first quarter, while investors will watch for initial sales of the newly launched plaque psoriasis pill Icotyde and Imaavy, approved in the United States in August for a second indication, warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Stelara's loss of exclusivity cut the segment's growth by 760 basis points in the second quarter, and the negative impact is expected to be steeper in the third quarter, with biosimilar competition from Amgen, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Samsung Bioepis/Sandoz, along with declining Imbruvica sales and European biosimilars for Simponi and a U.S. generic version of Opsumit, weighing on results. Overall, Innovative Medicine is expected to have been J&J's principal growth engine in the quarter, with oncology providing the strongest contribution and Tremfya helping offset Stelara's biosimilar-driven decline.
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Oncology Therapeutics ▲Competition
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Autoimmune & Immunology Therapeutics ▼Competition
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Biosimilars ▲Competition
Biotech & Genomic Medicine › Immuno-Oncology / Checkpoint Competition
JNJ · Competition · Negative Stelara's loss of exclusivity with biosimilar competition from Amgen, Teva and Samsung Bioepis/Sandoz, plus declining Imbruvica and generic/biosimilar pressure on Simponi and Opsumit, weighs on segment results.
JNJ · Demand · Positive J&J expects above-market Innovative Medicine growth led by oncology drugs Darzalex, Erleada, Carvykti, Tecvayli and Rybrevant/Lazcluze, plus newer launches like Inlexzo and Icotyde.
TEVA · Competition · Negative Teva's Stelara biosimilar competition is cited as weighing on J&J's Innovative Medicine results.