On April 20, 2026, McKesson Corporation is finalizing a significant deal with Apollo's managed funds, wherein Apollo will obtain a minority share in McKesson's Medical-Surgical Solutions (MMS) division. This agreement marks a crucial step in McKesson's broader strategy to separate MMS in anticipation of a future public offering.
Monday, April 20, 2026
AstraZeneca’s tozorakimab meets primary endpoint in pivotal Phase III MIRANDA COPD trial
Tozorakimab delivered a statistically significant, clinically meaningful reduction in moderate-to-severe COPD exacerbations in the MIRANDA trial
Phase III MIRANDA results support planned regulatory submissions for tozorakimab as a potential first-in-class biologic therapy
Arcus Biosciences Discontinues Lung Cancer Trial With Gilead
Arcus Biosciences is discontinuing a phase 3 lung cancer trial it was conducting with Gilead Sciences.
Arcus, an oncology company, said Monday it was ending the trial due to futility, meaning it doesn't expect the trial to yield positive results. It also ended a phase 2 study.
Gilead's option rights to certain early pipeline programs under its 2020 agreement with Arcus will end in July due to Gilead's decision to not make the option continuation payment to Arcus.
Gilead won't have option rights to additional Arcus programs, but will maintain its existing time-limited options.
The decision is based on the recommendation of the Independent Data Monitoring Committee, following its review of data from a pre-planned futility analysis.
The analysis didn't assess safety, but no new safety issues were identified during regular reviews.
Gilead is communicating with investigators to determine appropriate next steps for patients in the studies.
Merck’s early PD-1/VEGF data competitive in lung cancer, but Summit ‘Looms Large’
While Merck’s PD-1/VEGF asset appears to match the performance of Summit Therapeutics’ ivonescimab, the pharma’s Phase 1/2 readout in non-small cell lung cancer still leaves analysts with some questions moving into later-stage development.
Merck and Sino Biopharmaceutical’s anti-PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody achieved response rates in a Phase 1/2 study that could rival the current leader in the space—findings that could help the pharma hold on to its cancer crown.
The findings, revealed Friday along with other abstracts at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual meeting in San Diego, showed an unconfirmed overall response rate (ORR) of 55% in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who hadn’t undergone prior lines of treatment. The investigational therapy, dubbed MK-2010, hit 44% ORR when used as a second-line or later option.
“Data appears largely in line with Summit/Akeso’s ivonescimab,” analysts at BMO Capital Markets told investors in a Sunday afternoon note, referring to Merck’s chief competitor in this modality.
Summit Therapeutics and China’s Akeso are advancing the PD-1/VEGF bispecific ivonescimab, which is currently under FDA review for NSCLC with a decision expected in November. Some observers have dubbed ivonescimab as the Keytruda-killer after the partners in September 2024 showed that their bispecific antibody significantly outpaced Keytruda’s progression-free survival in a Phase 3 NSCLC study.
Most analysts have since tempered their optimism following a late-stage China study that resulted in an overall survival miss in May 2025 and signs of cross-country consistency problems in September that year.
Still, ivonescimab looms large over Merck’s new data. In a Monday note, BMO used ivonescimab’s Phase 3 ORR outcome of around 50% as a benchmark for MK-2010. “For MK-2010 to be meaningfully competitive in the PD-(L)1xVEGF treatment landscape, high ORRs that translate to survival outcomes in later-stage studies are needed,” the analysts said.
RBC Capital Markets agreed, noting on Friday that the Phase 1/2 findings support further development for MK-2010 and “puts Merck back in contention in the increasingly competitive PD-1×VEGF space.” Yet, the analysts wrote, the readout “lacks a distinctive edge.”
Merck “remains significantly behind” ivonescimab, the RBC analysts wrote, with Summit “substantially ahead.”
For Leerink Partners, Summit’s lead doesn’t seem so insurmountable. Merck has a “strong portfolio to leapfrog the competition via antibody-drug conjugate combinations,” analysts told investors in a Sunday note.
MK-2010 came to Merck in November 2024 when it partnered with Shanghai-based LaNova Medicines for $588 million upfront and up to $2.7 billion in milestones. In July 2025, Sino Biopharmaceutical bet up to $951 million to absorb LaNova.
Odyssey tests IPO waters anew after quitting quest last year
Odyssey Therapeutics
Raise: TBD
Public Market Debut: TBD
Odyssey Therapeutics is giving its IPO aspirations another go, announcing on April 17 another bid to debut on the Nasdaq Capital Market. The biotech is still fairly early into its offering, so it has yet to provide a specific raise target or a definitive timeline for the push.
The company has, however, determined that its IPO proceeds will go toward its lead candidate OD-001, a small-molecule scaffolding blocker of the RIPK2 protein, according to its preliminary prospectus. The money will help move OD-001 through planned Phase 2a and Phase 2b studies in ulcerative colitis.
Odyssey’s IPO will also help push the SLC15A4 program OD-002 through investigational new drug-enabling activities and into Phase 1/2a development. “These programs have the potential to yield treatments for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases that have large, addressable patient populations globally,” the biotech wrote in its securities filing.
Odyssey first tried for an IPO in January 2025, though the biotech’s programs were still preclinical at the time. In June last year, Odyssey decided to end its bid. It did not provide specific reasons for pulling its IPO, only noting in an SEC document that going public “is not in the best interests of the company.”
Agenus cancer cocktail records 0% response rate, missing midstage goal
An investigational cocktail was tied to a 0% overall response rate in patients with gastroesophageal cancer, but developers Agenus and MiNK Therapeutics aren’t giving up on the program just yet.
A cancer cocktail in development by Agenus and its spinout MiNK Therapeutics failed to elicit an overall response in a Phase 2 study, though the companies say other survival findings support continued efforts.
The biotechs were hoping the combination of Agenus’ two experimental immunotherapies botensilimab (BOT) and balstilimab (BAL), plus MiNK’s allogeneic cell therapy agenT-797, would improve overall response rate (ORR) for patients with gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma. The approved VEGFR2 antagonist Cyramza and chemotherapy were also added to the treatment regimen.
However, the investigational cocktail failed to elicit any complete or partial response among 15 eligible patients, according to an efficacy analysis set to be shared Monday afternoon at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. Patients included in the findings were diagnosed with advanced disease that has not responded to PD-1 treatment.
A previous Phase 3 trial showed that second-line treatment with Cyramza and chemotherapy was tied to an ORR of 28% and median progression free survival (PFS) of 4.4 months.
While the Agenus-MiNK candidate missed the trial’s primary goal, the biotechs pointed elsewhere to a 73% stable disease rate. Three patients also saw overall survival of more than 20 months, including one who has remained progression free after more than 22 months.
The companies also zeroed in on results from a subpopulation of patients receiving an induction cycle of the cocktail. Those patients had a PFS of 6.9 months compared to 3.5 months for the 10 patients who started all the therapies together.
The induction strategy was also tied to higher survival rates at 12 and 18 months, findings the companies say signal immune activation and tumor reprogramming.
Based on the subset data, Agenus and MiNK believe durability and survival “may be the most clinically relevant endpoints” in this specific patient population, according to the companies’ release shared on Friday. The subset findings “support further study of this approach,” they said.
As for safety, all patients experienced an adverse event (AE). Of 17 total patients, 53% experienced events of grade 3 or higher. The partners did not share further details on potential grade 4 and 5 events.
The safety data are “consistent with the component agents,” the companies said, adding that the most frequent treatment-emergent adverse events were fatigue, fever and diarrhea. Nine patients (53%) experienced an immune-related AE, with four of those events classified as grade 3 or higher events.
Agenus has been assessing its anti-CTLA-4 antibody BOT and PD-1 blocker BAL across several cancer types. The biotech recently launched a Phase 3 trial for the investigational combo in metastatic colorectal cancer and is prepping for potential future regulatory submissions in the U.S. and Europe.
In 2021, the Massachusetts-based biotech spun out its invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cell therapy agenT-797, creating MiNK. MiNK is testing agenT-797 in several indications, including a midstage study in severe acute lung injury. The New York spinout also touts a tech platform to develop other iNKT candidates and has several other programs in earlier-stage development.
Israeli, Lebanese envoys said to meet on Thursday
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter (pictured left) and his Lebanese counterpart Nada Hamadeh Moawad (pictured right) are set to meet in Washington on Thursday for a second round of direct negotiations, The Times of Israel reported on Monday, citing an Israeli official.
According to the report, the meeting between the Israeli and Lebanese officials, along with the American delegation, will take place at the US State Department, after the two ambassadors previously held a two-hour meeting last Tuesday, mediated by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The meeting of the two delegations comes amid preparations for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun's visit to the US, which is set to take place after Israel's Independence Day on Wednesday.
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Israeli-Lebanese-envoys-said-to-meet-on-Thursday/66105730
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