Regeneron’s star bispecific is linked to 2 deaths in a small study — which was no help for its Q1 call
One of Regeneron’s star cancer drugs in the pipeline has run into trouble, and that’s contributing to some turbulence for the share price on Tuesday.
Regeneron execs chose to disclose in their Q1 call with analysts today that their closely watched bispecific REGN1979 was linked with two deaths from cytokine release syndrome in a small PD-1 combo study involving 30 patients.
This bispecific hunts the B cell marker CD20 as well as the CD3 component of the T cell receptor, and Regeneron cancer research chief Israel Lowy spotlighted a 100% overall response rate as a monotherapy at ASH late last year, with 8 complete responses and 2 partials among patients with follicular lymphoma. That’s very early-stage data from a tiny trial, but Phase I is the new Phase II in cancer research, and those kinds of data always attract attention in the field — particularly when it comes from a high-profile outfit like Regeneron.
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