Competition crowds out Torl's conjugate efforts

Claudin18.2 and CDH17 have become two of the hottest targets for antibody-drug conjugate developers, but the private US biotech Torl appears to have decided to look elsewhere. A recently updated R&D pipeline reveals the disappearance of Torl's anti-Claudin18.2 ADC elatatug vedotin and anti-CDH17 ADC zarutatug vedotin; both had been in phase 1 trials for a couple of years, with no data reported. Just this week Torl closed a $96m round of series C financing, taking the total it has raised from venture capitalists above $450m, but its trimmed pipeline now features just three assets, hitting somewhat less competitive targets. The lead of these is the anti-Claudin6 ADC ixotatug vedotin, which is due to feature at ESMO. Meanwhile, OncologyPipeline lists 26 other anti-Claudin18.2 ADCs, including phase 3 assets from AstraZeneca (sonesitatug vedotin), Innovent (arcotatug tavatecan), LaNova (tecotabart vedotin) and Astellas (ASP546C). The anti-CDH17 state of play is only marginally less competitive, with phase 2 ADCs from Mabwell (7MW4911), Keymed (CM518D1) and others. Interestingly, one company is investigating both approaches in a single molecule: VelaVigo's VBC108, an ADC that hits Claudin18.2 as well as CDH17, is still preclinical, but the group hopes to file an IND next year.

Torl’s trimmed ADC pipeline

Source: OncologyPipeline.