Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. and Merck & Co. Inc.’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) ifinatamab deruxtecan produced a confirmed 48.2% objective response rate in a phase II study of previously treated patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer.

Results from the global phase III Harmoni trial presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) showed a statistically significant increase in progression-free survival after treatment with ivonescimab plus chemotherapy compared to chemotherapy alone, but failed to show a statistically significant benefit in overall survival (OS).

Detailed data are expected later, but partners Biontech SE and Duality Biologics Co. Ltd. are celebrating a phase III interim analysis readout demonstrating that HER2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) trastuzumab pamirtecan hit the primary endpoint of progression-free survival in patients with HER2-positive unresectable or metastatic breast cancer who have previously received trastuzumab and a taxane-based chemotherapy.

“New explosions in biotechnology are allowing us to interrogate cancers at a very sophisticated level compared to before,” Dennis Slamon told audience members at the Global Bio Conference in Seoul, South Korea Sept. 3.

Propanc Biopharma, Inc. plans to acquire $100 million of Ethereum cryptocurrency over the next 12 months to accelerate its pipeline. The company is advancing its lead candidate, PRP, to enter a phase Ib trial in 30 to 40 advanced cancer patients with malignant solid tumors.

About two years since its founding, new company Radiance Biopharma Inc. signed a deal in which it could pay up to $1.165 billion to Novatim Immune Therapeutics Co. Ltd. for global rights outside of certain Asian countries to a bispecific nanobody antibody-drug conjugate that targets c-MET and EGFR to treat solid tumors.

Oddsmakers placing their bets on which drugs will be in play for round 3 of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) price negotiations are doing some reshuffling, thanks to an orphan drug provision tucked into the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that was signed into law on the Fourth of July.

Charm Therapeutics Ltd. is heading to the clinic after closing an oversubscribed series B, which will fund initial development of a menin inhibitor that is AI-designed to circumvent shortcomings of first-generation molecules.

Antiva Biosciences Inc. has developed an intravaginal topical treatment, ABI-2280, for high-risk cervical infections with human papillomavirus (HPV). In a phase Ib/II study, after two weeks of treatment at the highest dose of the DNA polymerase inhibitor, 46% of patients were negative for high-risk HPV at week 12, compared to just 16% of patients treated with placebo.