World Lung 2025 preview – best of the rest
Posters and mini-orals include another VEGF bispecific.
Posters and mini-orals include another VEGF bispecific.
Away from the late-breakers and plenary presentations, what else might investors be looking out for at the upcoming World Conference on Lung Cancer? With Summit's Harmoni trial of ivonescimab seizing much of the limelight, a poster on ImmuneOnco's rival anti-PD-L1 x VEGF bispecific palverafusp alfa could also be of interest, for instance.
Elsewhere, inhibitors of EGFR, including those targeting rare mutations, abound from mostly Chinese biotechs – an area of interest to investors in Cullinan, whose Otsuka-partnered zipalertinib features in the exon 20 insertion niche. And LB2102, a therapy licensed by Novartis from Legend Biotech, is one of the few Car-T approaches to be profiled at the conference.
The ImmuneOnco data are of special importance to followers of Instil Bio, which licensed palverafusp alfa last September for $50m. Last month the Chinese company reported data from a chemo combo approach in first-line lung cancer, but these didn't especially impress.
A World Lung poster will present further results from an early monotherapy trial in immuno-oncology pretreated squamous NSCLC, where the abstract reveals a 29% response rate among 27 patients. Followers of this bispecific approach also have BioNTech/Bristol Myers Squibb's pumitamig on their radars, but its World Lung presentation is in SCLC.
Selected World Lung 2025 presentations
| Project | Mechanism | Company | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palverafusp alfa* | PD-L1 x VEGF fusion protein | ImmuneOnco/ Instil Bio | IO-treated squam NSCLC: ORR 29% (5/17) |
| LB2102 | DLL3 Car-T (dnTGFBR2-armoured) | Novartis/ Legend | SCLC & NETs: ORR 20% (2/10) |
| Kardorisso (asandeutertinib) | EGFR inhibitor | Tyk Medicines | Esaona-Pivotal trial vs Tagrisso in 1L NSCLC with brain mets: ORR 92% vs 75% |
| WSD0922* | EGFR inhibitor | Wayshine Biopharm | Ph1/2 post-3gen TKI, EGFR C797S+ NSCLC: ORR 61% (20/33) |
| FHND9041* | EGFR inhibitor | Jiangsu Zhengda | Ph2 post-TKI, EGFR T790m NSCLC: ORR 50% (54/109) |
| BNT116 | RNA-based immunotherapy (fixed antigen) | BioNTech | Post-CRT NSCLC, Libtayo combo, 20% serious TRAE |
| Aglatimagene besadenovec | Viral immunotherapy | Candel | Post-checkpoint NSCLC, checkpoint combo (abstract still under embargo) |
| Tifcemalimab (icatolimab) | BTLA MAb | Junshi Biosciences | Ph1/2 1L ES-SCLC, toripalimab combo: ORR 86% |
Note: *poster, as all others are mini-oral presentations. Source: IASLC.
In November 2023 Novartis paid Legend $100m for rights to anti-DLL3 Car-T assets including LB2102, an autologous project armoured with dominant-negative TGFBR2 that will feature in a World Lung mini-oral session.
Through the deal Novartis sought to apply its T-Charge manufacturing technology to additional Car-T therapies, but the World Lung presentation relates to a Legend-sponsored trial using traditional production. ASCO heard the first case report of a partial response from this study in NSCLC and neuroendocrine tumours, and World Lung adds a further response in a total of 10 patients.
Kardorisso vs Tagrisso
Meanwhile, among various companies developing EGFR inhibitors, Tyk Medicines is notable in having pitched its molecule, asandeutertinib, head to head against AstraZeneca's Tagrisso in the Esaona-Pivotal trial in front-line NSCLC with brain metastases.
This had been toplined in March as showing statistical and clinical significance. The World Lung abstract reveals response rates by blinded independent central review of 92% versus 76%, which is said to have hit statistical significance with p=0.001. Tyk wants to file in China on the basis of these data, and has already trademarked its molecule Kardorisso.
World Lung takes place in Barcelona on 5-9 September.
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