Cofetuzumab Pelidotin

Pfizer is packing up three early-stage and two mid-stage pipeline programs to send out the door. Pfizer’s new cost-saving agenda will see five pipeline programs in oncology, rare disease and immunology packed off to the graveyard. Three of the terminated programs are phase 1 oncology assets, according to Pfizer’s online product pipeline, which was updated on October 31. First up in the discard pile is PF-06647020, a non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) biologic that was assessed in an early-stage trial of 138 patients that read out in 2019, according to ClinicalTrials.gov. Another NSCLC hopeful, the CD47-PD-L1 bispecific antibody PF-07257876 is being terminated days after a phase 1 study of 28 patients with selected advanced or metastatic tumors wrapped Oct. 24, according to ClinicalTrials.gov. Evidently, Pfizer didn’t like what it saw and tossed the bispecific in the bin. The last early-stage cancer med to get the boot is PF-07265028, a small molecule candidate designed for patients with solid tumors. In a trial with a primary completion date set for 2026, PF-07265028 was being studied as monotherapy and in combination with Pfizer’s investigational monoclonal antibody sasanlimab. Moving on to the mid-stage rejects is a rare disease candidate and eczema and psoriasis asset. The phase 2 study testing out PF-06730512 for patients with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis—which is scar tissue in the kidney—was terminated due to lack of efficacy at the end of 2022, according to ClinicalTrials.gov. Lastly is PF-07038124, a small molecule candidate that was tested out in patients with atopic dermatitis (eczema) and psoriasis. The phase 2b study wrapped up this summer after testing out the ointment in 264 patients.               The culls come shortly after the Big Pharma announced a multi-year, enterprise-wide cost realignment program that aims to save at least $3.5 billion as COVID revenues nose-dive. Just yesterday, Pfizer announced that it will be shuttering a New Jersey facility early next year, a company spokesperson told Fierce Pharma. While a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification listing shows that 791 positions are affected, the "vast majority" of workers will be reassigned to Pfizer's New York headquarters, the spokesperson said. The cuts follow earlier layoffs in Illinois and Colorado and plans to close two North Carolina facilities.

Pictured: AbbVie headquarters in California/iStock, Michael Vi AbbVie has terminated its license and collaboration agreement with I-Mab, the Maryland- and Shanghai-based biotech announced in an SEC filing posted Friday. As a result, I-Mab will regain the global rights to develop and commercialize all CD47 compounds covered by the deal, including the monoclonal antibody lemzoparlimab. The termination will take effect on Nov. 20, 2023 and will not affect the $200 million in upfront and milestone payments that I-Mab had already received from AbbVie. According to I-Mab’s SEC document, AbbVie is pulling away from the partnership as a “strategic decision,” though a prior program discontinuation also factored into its decision. AbbVie and I-Mab first entered into their global agreement in September 2020. For an upfront payment of $180 million and the promise of up to $1.74 billion in success-based milestones, AbbVie earned exclusive rights—outside of the greater China area—to develop and commercialize lemzoparlimab. The deal also allowed for potential future targets using I-Mab’s CD47 molecules. In August 2022, however, AbbVie ended two Phase Ib trials of lemzoparlimab, one in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and another in acute myeloid leukemia. The partners gave no specific reason for discontinuing these studies, though I-Mab said that it was not triggered by “specific or unexpected safety concerns.” At the time, the companies were studying lemzoparlimab in combination with azacytidine and AbbVie’s chronic lymphocytic leukemia drug Venclexta (venetoclax tablets). The partners also amended their collaboration then, which still had the potential for up to nearly $1.3 billion in development, regulatory and sales milestones for I-Mab. Despite losing a powerhouse partner, I-Mab will continue its development of lemzoparlimab. According to the company’s SEC filing, the investigational antibody is in a Phase III registrational study in combination with azacytidine for high-risk MDS in China. The company will also continue analyzing data from the candidate’s development program to assess future opportunities for it. If approved, lemzoparlimab could become a first-in-class CD47 antibody for hematologic malignancies in China, I-Mab said. For AbbVie, dropping the I-Mab partnership comes just days after it chose not to exercise its exclusive licensing option for Harpoon Therapeutics’ TriTAC candidate HPN217, which is in a Phase I trial for multiple myeloma. Last month, AbbVie also cut two early-stage oncology assets from its developmental pipeline. The first, ABBV-011, was an anti-SEZ6 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) being trialed for relapsed or refractory lung cancer. The second dropped asset was ABBV-647, a Pfizer-partnered ADC targeting the PTK7 protein for the potential treatment of solid tumors. Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. He can be reached at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.