Glaxo follows Jounce with an Icos setback

Glaxosmithkline’s efforts to make progress in oncology have taken another knock with the discontinuation of two phase 3 trials of its Icos agonist feladilimab. The studies in question are in head and neck cancer in combination with Merck & Co’s Keytruda: Induce-3 is in PD-L1-positive subjects, while Induce-4, in all-comers, additionally gives chemo. Two remaining phase 2 tests continue, but must now also be seen as highly speculative; one combines feladilimab with Astrazeneca’s tremelimumab and the other includes Bristol Myers Squibb’s Yervoy. The CTLA-4 combo strategy was seriously undermined with last year’s failure of the Emerge study of Jounce’s competing Icos MAb vopratelimab plus Yervoy (Jounce trounced after Icos stumble, November 3, 2020). If the latest setbacks signal the end of feladilimab – the industry’s most advanced Icos MAb – this will add to Glaxo’s struggles in oncology. The group’s anti-BCMA ADC Blenrep did make it across the line in multiple myeloma, but toxicity looks set to limit its use to late-line settings; the anti-PD-(L)1 MAb dostarlimab is still not approved in the US, after a 2020 Pdufa date came and went; and another once-promising late-stage asset, bintrafusp alfa, has failed two important studies.