ESMO Breast Cancer 2024 – Arvinas rises as vepdegestrant stays the same

In the battle of SERDs Arvinas looks to have prevailed again over Olema Oncology. Updated results from the Veritac trial, testing Arvinas’s Pfizer-partnered vepdegestrant plus Ibrance in late-line ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, are very similar to those reported last December at SABCS. Arvinas rose 5% this morning, probably helped by yesterday's confusing update from Olema, but ended up closing flat. Vepdegestrant plus Ibrance’s ORR of 42% eclipses the 22% seen with Olema’s palazestrant plus Novartis’s Kisqali – and the latter number flatters Olema, with this analysis only including 23 of 50 treated patients. Still, Veritac’s ORR analysis also excluded 15 patients; only 31 of 46 subjects were evaluable as they had measurable disease at baseline as well as scans available to assess response, a spokesperson for Arvinas told ApexOnco. Arvinas could have a time advantage too, with the phase 3 Veritac-2 trial, testing vepdegestrant monotherapy in second-line-plus breast cancer, due to read out in the second half. Olema’s analagous trial, Opera-01, isn’t set to yield data until 2026. Both projects have yet to start their pivotal first-line combo studies.

Cross trial comparison of Arvinas/Pfizer’s vepdegestrant + Ibrance and Olema’s palazestrant + Kisqali

Notes: *defined as confirmed CR, PR or SD ≥24 wks; **defined as SD or better for ≥24 wks; ^excludes patients with no measurable disease at baseline; ^^includes unconfirmed responses. Source: company releases.

This story has been updated to include Arvinas's closing share price and more details on evaluable patients.