AACR 2022 – the first biopharma catalysts emerge

 Last night’s big reveal from AACR has given biopharma investors the first clues about what to expect from this year’s conference, which starts in New Orleans on April 8. Though apart from posters AACR has published only the abstract titles for now, several look noteworthy, including a clinical update on Affimed’s NK cell engager AFM13, which had wowed last year’s meeting, and a look at human data with Astrazeneca’s son of Lynparza, AZD5305, and PD-1/CTLA-4 bispecific MEDI5752. A few private biotechs will be thrust into the spotlight, with late-breakers (likely featuring preclinical data) from the cell therapy players Elpis Biopharmaceuticals and Myeloid Therapeutics, as well as Caribou Biosciences. An oral clinical presentation will feature TTX-030, an Abbvie-partnered anti-CD39 MAb that Tizona had spun out into the private entity Trishula after Gilead took a 49.9% stake in Tizona. And AACR’s biggest late-stage dataset might be Bristol Myers Squibb’s Checkmate-816 trial of Opdivo plus chemo in neoadjuvant NSCLC, though for many this will have little beyond academic interest: Opdivo secured US approval based on this study last week, just four days after the FDA accepted its filing.

Selected presentations at AACR 2022
Company	Project	Mechanism	Study	Abstract
Biontech	BNT211	Anti-CLDN6 Car-T	CLDN6+ve solid tumours	CT002
Affimed	NK cells + AFM13	Anti-CD30xCD16A NK cell engager	CD30+ve lymphoma	CT003
Bayer	Elimusertib	ATR inhibitor	Solid tumours with DDR defects	CT006
Astrazeneca	AZD5305	Next-gen Parp1 inhibitor	Petra trial, Brca1/2, Palb2 or Rad51C/D mut	CT007
Bristol Myers Squibb	Opdivo	Anti-PD-1 + chemo	Checkmate-816, neoadj NSCLC	CT012
Highlight Therapeutics	BO-112	RNAi + Keytruda	Spotlight-203, PD-1-refractory melanoma cohort	CT014
Trishula/Abbvie	TTX-030	Anti-CD39 MAb + chemo	1L gastric/GEJ	CT015
Astrazeneca	MEDI5752	Anti-PD-1/CTLA-4 bispecific	First-in-human solid tumour study	CT016
Genocea	GEN-011	Neoantigen-directed T cells	Titan-1 study	CT153
Bicycle	BT8009	Anti-nectin-4	Nectin-4 expressing tumours	CT025
C4	CFT7455	IKZF1/3 degrader	First-in-human multiple myeloma study	CT186
Gracell	GC-0502	Allo anti-CD19/CD7 Car-T	B-cell ALL	CT196
Adaptimmune	ADP-A2M4	Anti-Mage-A4 TCR	Mage-A4 +ve tumours	LB001
Elpis Biopharmaceuticals	EPC-001	Fully human anti-CD19/CD22 tandem Car	Preclinical	LB002
Myeloid Therapeutics	?	ATAK receptors, novel Cars	Preclinical	LB005
Caribou Biosciences	CB-011	Allo anti-BCMA Car-T with HLA-E transgene	Preclinical	LB009
Source: AACR. https://www.evaluate.com/vantage/articles/events/conferences-snippets/aacr-2022-first-biopharma-catalysts-emerge