Fierce Biotech

3 days ago | fiercebiotech.com | Angus Liu

As Merck & Co., Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer have hopped on the PD-(L)1xVEGF bispecific bandwagon, the question becomes how far the fanfare will spread. It’s more than just existing PD-1/L1 players potentially looking for bispecifics to bolster their positions, but whether checkpoint inhibitor wannabes will use these next-generation antibodies to make up for lost PD-1 opportunities—and potentially leapfrog makers of anti-PD-1 drugs—remains an open topic for discussion.

4 days ago | fiercebiotech.com | Andrea Park

A new study, sponsored by AstraZeneca and presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago this week, suggests that using the Guardant360 CDx test to spot early signs of therapy resistance in advanced breast cancer patients and inform a treatment change could slash the risk of disease progression or death by half.

4 days ago | fiercebiotech.com | Nick Paul Taylor

Barreling toward the loss of exclusivity on its blockbuster oncology therapy Keytruda, Merck & Co. has reportedly offered $3 billion to buy MoonLake Immunotherapeutics to add an inflammatory disease prospect to its late-phase pipeline. The Financial Times reports Merck submitted a nonbinding offer that valued MoonLake at more than $3 billion earlier this year. The offer was rejected, but talks could be revived, the FT said.

5 days ago | fiercebiotech.com | James Waldron

Kura Oncology and Kyowa Kirin have shared details of the phase 2 win for their oral leukemia treatment ziftomenib as the FDA mulls whether to greenlight the selective menin inhibitor. The trial of ziftomenib enrolled 92 heavily pretreated patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) NPM1-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

5 days ago | fiercebiotech.com | James Waldron

This time, Sanofi is making a $15 million upfront payment for the rights to NX-3911, a signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6) degrader that could potentially treat inflammation in allergic conditions. Over time, Nurix could be eligible for up to $465 million in development, regulatory and commercial milestones as well as potential future royalties.