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Akeso/Summit’s Bispecific Ivonescimab Bests Keytruda In 1L NSCLC

China-Only Study But Big Implications?

 
• By Dexter Jie Yan

Ivonescimab has shown significant and "extremely commercially meaningful" improvements in progression-free survival versus Keytruda as a first-line therapy for lung cancer in a trial in China, potentially positioning it as a new chemo-free solution for all PD-L1-positive patients in this setting.

Cancer survival
Ivonescimab comes out strong in China head-to-head trial with Keytruda in first-line NSCLC • Source: Shutterstock

Akeso Inc. and Summit Therapeutics plc’s ivonescimab, a PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody, bested Merck & Co., Inc.’s anti-PD-1 blockbuster Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as a first-line monotherapy in certain PD-L1-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, cutting the risk of disease progression or death by 49% in the China-only Phase III HARMONi-2 clinical trial.

Key Takeaways

  • Akeso/Summit's ivonescimab cut the risk of disease progression or death by 49% versus Keytruda in the China-only, head-to-head Phase III HARMONi-2 trial.

  • Akeso expects the absolute median progression-free survival of 11

New details of the clinical outcomes were released on 8 September at the World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) held by the International Association for the Study

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