Sutro and Astellas reveal TROP2 interest

Astellas and Sutro have been collaborating on ADCs since 2022, but it’s only just emerging that the groups’ most advanced project targets TROP2. The asset, known as ASP2998, went into the clinic earlier this year, but it only became apparent when AACR titles were released that this was a dual payload ADC – and now Sutro has confirmed its involvement in its fourth-quarter earnings release. Like the approved TROP2-targeting ADCs, Gilead’s Trodelvy and AstraZeneca/Daiichi’s Enhertu, ASP2998 uses a topoisomerase 1 inhibitor as a payload; unlike those drugs, the Astellas/Sutro project also incorporates a Sting agonist. Sting agonism has broadly disappointed, but other groups – notably Daiichi – are also using these molecules as payloads. Preclinical data on ASP2998 will feature at AACR. Sutro and Astellas are also working on another dual payload ADC that entered an IND-enabling study late last year, although the groups aren’t providing more details. This appears to be separate from a recently-revealed Sutro dual payload ADC targeting HER2, detailed in a preclinical AACR abstract. The company’s lead asset is the anti-tissue factor ADC STRO-004, following the shelving last year of the anti-folate receptor alpha ADC luveltamab tazevibulin. First clinical data on STRO-004 are due in mid-2026.

Sutro’s pipeline

Source: OncologyPipeline.