CHICA­GO — Now that the first wave of PD-(L)1 drugs has splashed out and is get­ting es­tab­lished in the can­cer mar­ket, one of the next steps down the pipeline in­volves match­ing up check­point in­hibitors in new com­bos as the lead­ers in the field pur­sue a fast and fu­ri­ous R&D strat­e­gy to mar­ket ex­pan­sion. To that end, Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb $BMY turned up at AS­CO with some in­trigu­ing proof-of-con­cept da­ta that mar­ries their drug Op­di­vo with a LAG-3 drug, of­fer­ing an ear­ly glimpse on how it could work for a par­tic­u­lar cat­e­go­ry of pa­tient.

Pao­lo Ascier­to

Their com­bo, BMS-986016, achieved a 12.5% ob­jec­tive re­sponse rate among 55 melanoma pa­tients who had al­ready been on a PD-(L)1 ther­a­py. More im­por­tant­ly, there was sig­nif­i­cant split in re­spons­es among pa­tients based on LAG-3 ex­pres­sion, with 20% of the pa­tients with at least 1% of tu­mor-as­so­ci­at­ed im­mune cells with­in the tu­mor mar­gin achiev­ing an ORR com­pared to 7.1% with less than 1%.

Jef­feries’ Biren Amin con­clud­ed that the da­ta were un­der­whelm­ing, but an ad­just­ment around LAG-3 ex­pres­sion could en­hance its fu­ture.

Op­di­vo was the first of the PD-(L)1s to dom­i­nate the mar­ket, but af­ter Bris­tol-My­ers’ tri­al work de­railed on a mis­step in lung can­cer, the big biotech has dou­bled down on on­col­o­gy, shak­ing up its R&D group and tack­ling a steadi­ly widen­ing num­ber of stud­ies. This is one step back in the right di­rec­tion.

“As a po­ten­tial­ly syn­er­gis­tic im­mune path­way to PD-1/PD-L1, LAG-3 has emerged as an im­mune check­point re­cep­tor that reg­u­lates T cell func­tion and whose in­hi­bi­tion may in­crease ben­e­fits for pa­tients,” said Pao­lo Ascier­to of the Is­ti­tu­to Nazionale Tu­mori Fon­dazione Pas­cale of Naples, Italy. “These re­sults in­di­cate that BMS-986016 in com­bi­na­tion with Op­di­vo may of­fer clin­i­cal ben­e­fit, par­tic­u­lar­ly for pa­tients whose tu­mors con­tain im­mune cells that ex­press LAG-3. Fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tion is war­rant­ed to un­der­stand the im­pact of this com­bi­na­tion as well as the util­i­ty of LAG-3 as an im­mune bio­mark­er.”

The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended nine drugs for approval this week while also giving thumbs up for six expanded indications, including Novo Nordisk’s approved obesity medication Wegovy for younger people. Wegovy is already approved as an obesity treatment in the EU for adults, and the new indication would allow prescriptions for adolescents aged 12 and older.

RNA biotech GreenLight Biosciences has been handed an offer for potential acquisition.

GreenLight said in a release that it has received a non-binding “indication of interest” from Fall Line Endurance Fund to acquire GreenLight’s capital stock for $0.60 per share in cash. The release said any potential agreement between the two parties would depend on certain conditions.

Through a special committee, the biotech will evaluate the offer but added there’s no certainty a deal will go forward. GreenLight will also not make any more announcements until a deal comes through or “otherwise determines” a statement is necessary.

A public T cell biotech’s chief executive has decided to leave the company.

TScan Therapeutics said Friday morning that CEO David Southwell stepped down earlier this week, leaving both his chief executive and board member roles. Filling in is Gavin MacBeath, the company’s CSO and COO. He became the acting CEO on Tuesday, and will continue to remain CSO and COO, TScan’s announcement read.