Disitamab Vedotin

TOKYO, Japan & BASKING RIDGE, NJ, USA I May 31, 2025 I Positive results from the DESTINY-Gastric04 phase 3 trial showed ENHERTU ® (trastuzumab deruxtecan) demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in overall survival (OS) compared to ramucirumab plus paclitaxel in patients with second-line HER2 positive (IHC 3+ or IHC 2+/ISH+) unresectable and/or metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma. Results will be presented today as a late-breaking oral presentation ( LBA #4002 ) at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (#ASCO25) Annual Meeting and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine . ENHERTU is a specifically engineered HER2 directed DXd antibody drug conjugate (ADC) discovered by Daiichi Sankyo (TSE: 4568) and being jointly developed and commercialized by Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN). In the primary endpoint analysis of OS, ENHERTU reduced the risk of death by 30% versus ramucirumab plus paclitaxel (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.70; confidence interval [CI]: 0.55-0.90; p=0.0044). Median OS was 14.7 months with ENHERTU (n=246) versus 11.4 months with ramucirumab plus paclitaxel (n=248). In the secondary endpoint analysis of progression-free survival (PFS), ENHERTU demonstrated a 26% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death versus ramucirumab plus paclitaxel (HR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.59-0.92; p=0.0074) as assessed by investigator. Median PFS was 6.7 months with ENHERTU versus 5.6 months with ramucirumab plus paclitaxel. A confirmed objective response rate (ORR) of 44.3% (95% CI: 37.8-50.9) was seen in patients treated with ENHERTU with seven complete responses (CR) and 97 partial responses (PR) versus an ORR of 29.1% (95% CI: 23.4-35.3) with three CRs and 66 PRs in the ramucirumab plus paclitaxel arm (p=0.0006). Median duration of response (DOR) was 7.4 months (95% CI: 5.7-10.1) in the ENHERTU arm and 5.3 months (95% CI: 4.1-5.7) in the ramucirumab plus paclitaxel arm. Disease control rate (DCR) was 91.9% (95% CI: 87.7-95.1) with ENHERTU versus 75.9% (95% CI: 70.0-81.2) with ramucirumab plus paclitaxel. Improvements in OS and PFS with ENHERTU were consistent across subgroups. “Gastric cancer is particularly challenging to treat, especially in the advanced stages where the five-year survival rate remains low,” said Kohei Shitara, MD, Chief, Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Chiba, Japan and lead investigator in the DESTINY-Gastric04 trial. “The superior overall survival demonstrated in DESTINY-Gastric04 confirms that ENHERTU could become the global standard of care in the second-line metastatic setting of HER2 positive gastric cancer or gastroesophageal junction cancer.” The safety profile of ENHERTU in DESTINY-Gastric04 was consistent with previous gastric cancer clinical trials with no new safety concerns identified. The most common grade 3 or higher treatment related adverse events occurring in patients treated with ENHERTU were neutropenia (28.7%), anemia (13.9%), thrombocytopenia (8.6%), leukopenia (7.4%) and fatigue (7.0%). Interstitial lung disease (ILD) or pneumonitis occurred in 13.9% of patients treated with ENHERTU and 1.3% treated in the ramucirumab plus paclitaxel arm. In the ENHERTU arm, the majority of ILD or pneumonitis events were low grade (grade 1 [n=7; 2.9%] or grade 2 [n=26; 10.7%]) except for one grade 3 ILD event (0.4%) as determined by an independent adjudication committee. In the ramucirumab plus paclitaxel arm, there were two grade 3 (0.9%) and one grade 5 (0.4%) ILD events. “ENHERTU continues to deliver impressive results with these new data from DESTINY-Gastric04, which represent the first time a HER2 directed medicine has demonstrated a survival benefit in a randomized phase 3 trial in the second-line HER2 positive metastatic gastric cancer setting,” said Ken Takeshita, MD, Global Head, R&D, Daiichi Sankyo. “Similar to our strategy in other tumor types, we continue to pursue the development of ENHERTU in earlier stages of gastric cancer and have recently initiated phase 3 trials evaluating ENHERTU as part of a combination regimen as a first-line treatment in patients HER2 positive metastatic disease.” “Patients with HER2 positive metastatic gastric cancer who experience progression after first-line treatment have historically faced poor outcomes,” said Cristian Massacesi, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Oncology Chief Development Officer, AstraZeneca. “These results showed that ENHERTU reduced the risk of death by nearly one-third in patients with previously treated HER2 positive metastatic gastric cancer, reinforcing the benefit of ENHERTU in this setting.” ENHERTU is currently approved in more than 70 countries in the second-line or third-line metastatic setting of HER2 positive gastric cancer based on DESTINY-Gastric01 , a randomized phase 2 trial, and DESTINY-Gastric02 and DESTINY-Gastric06 , two single-arm phase 2 trials. Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca are currently evaluating ENHERTU in the first-line metastatic setting through the DESTINY-Gastric05 and ARETEMIDE-Gastric01 phase 3 trials. The majority of patients in the DESTINY-Gastric04 trial had received no prior treatment with an immune checkpoint inhibitor (84.1% in the ENHERTU arm and 84.7% in the ramucirumab plus paclitaxel arm) and had two or more metastatic sites (70.3% in the ENHERTU arm and 69.8% in the ramucirumab plus paclitaxel arm). Median duration of follow-up was 16.8 months in the ENHERTU arm and 14.4 months in the ramucirumab plus paclitaxel arm. Median treatment duration was 5.4 months (range: 0.7-30.3) with ENHERTU and 4.6 months (range: 0.9-34.9) with ramucirumab plus paclitaxel. Of the patients that discontinued treatment from the ramucirumab plus paclitaxel arm, 52 (21.0%) proceeded to receive ENHERTU and 12 (4.8%) disitamab vedotin post-trial. As of the data cut-off of October 24, 2024, 18.9% of patients receiving ENHERTU and 18.5% receiving ramucirumab plus paclitaxel remained on study treatment. Summary of DESTINY-Gastric04 Primary Analysis Results About DESTINY-Gastric04 DESTINY-Gastric04 is a global, randomized, open-label, phase 3 trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of ENHERTU (6.4 mg/kg) versus ramucirumab and paclitaxel in patients with HER2 positive (IHC 3+ or IHC 2+/ISH+) unresectable and/or metastatic gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma with disease progression on or after a trastuzumab-containing regimen. The primary endpoint is OS. Secondary endpoints include investigator-assessed progression-free survival, objective response rate, duration of response, disease control rate and safety. In March 2025, an Independent Data Monitoring Committee recommended unblinding DESTINY-Gastric04 based on the superior efficacy of ENHERTU seen at a planned interim analysis. DESTINY-Gastric04 enrolled 494 patients in Asia, Europe and South America. For more information about the trial, visit ClinicalTrials.gov . About HER2 Positive Gastric Cancer Gastric (stomach) cancer is the fifth most common cancer worldwide and the fifth leading cause of cancer-related death. 1 Approximately one million cases of gastric cancer were diagnosed in 2022. 1 Gastric cancer is associated with a poor prognosis, particularly in advanced stages of the disease where the five-year survival rate is 5% to 10%. 2 HER2 is a tyrosine kinase receptor growth-promoting protein expressed on the surface of many types of tumors, including gastric cancer. 3 Approximately one in five gastric cancers are considered HER2 positive. 3,4 Prior to the results of the DESTINY-Gastric04 trial of ENHERTU, no other HER2 directed medicine has demonstrated a survival benefit in the second-line metastatic setting in a randomized clinical trial. 5 About ENHERTU ENHERTU (trastuzumab deruxtecan; fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki in the U.S. only) is a HER2 directed ADC. Designed using Daiichi Sankyo’s proprietary DXd ADC Technology, ENHERTU is the lead ADC in the oncology portfolio of Daiichi Sankyo and the most advanced program in AstraZeneca’s ADC scientific platform. ENHERTU consists of a HER2 monoclonal antibody attached to a number of topoisomerase I inhibitor payloads (an exatecan derivative, DXd) via tetrapeptide-based cleavable linkers. ENHERTU (5.4 mg/kg) is approved in more than 80 countries worldwide for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2 positive (immunohistochemistry [IHC] 3+ or in-situ hybridization (ISH)+) breast cancer who have received a prior anti-HER2-based regimen, either in the metastatic setting or in the neoadjuvant or adjuvant setting, and have developed disease recurrence during or within six months of completing therapy based on the results from the DESTINY-Breast03 trial. ENHERTU (5.4 mg/kg) is approved in more than 80 countries worldwide for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2 low (IHC 1+ or IHC 2+/ISH-) breast cancer who have received a prior systemic therapy in the metastatic setting or developed disease recurrence during or within six months of completing adjuvant chemotherapy based on the results from the DESTINY-Breast04 trial. ENHERTU (5.4 mg/kg) is approved in more than 30 countries for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic hormone receptor (HR) positive, HER2 low (IHC 1+ or IHC 2+/ISH-) or HER2 ultralow (IHC 0 with membrane staining) breast cancer, as determined by a locally or regionally approved test, that has progressed on one or more endocrine therapies in the metastatic setting based on the results from the DESTINY-Breast06 trial. ENHERTU (5.4 mg/kg) is approved in more than 60 countries worldwide for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic NSCLC whose tumors have activating HER2 ( ERBB2 ) mutations, as detected by a locally or regionally approved test, and who have received a prior systemic therapy based on the results from the DESTINY-Lung02 and/or DESTINY-Lung05 trials. Continued approval in China and the U.S. for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial. ENHERTU (6.4 mg/kg) is approved in more than 70 countries worldwide for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic HER2 positive (IHC 3+ or IHC 2+/ISH+) gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma who have received a prior trastuzumab-based regimen based on the results from the DESTINY-Gastric01 , DESTINY-Gastric02 and/or DESTINY-Gastric06 trials. Continued approval in China for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial. ENHERTU (5.4 mg/kg) is approved in Brazil, Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, U.K. and the U.S. for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2 positive (IHC 3+) solid tumors who have received prior systemic treatment and have no satisfactory alternative treatment options based on efficacy results from the DESTINY-PanTumor02 , DESTINY-Lung01 and DESTINY-CRC02 trials. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial. About the ENHERTU Clinical Development Program A comprehensive global clinical development program is underway evaluating the efficacy and safety of ENHERTU as a monotherapy or in combination or sequentially with other anti-cancer therapies across multiple HER2 targetable cancers. About the Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca Collaboration Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca entered into a global collaboration to jointly develop and commercialize ENHERTU in March 2019 and DATROWAY ® in July 2020 , except in Japan where Daiichi Sankyo maintains exclusive rights for each ADC. Daiichi Sankyo is responsible for the manufacturing and supply of ENHERTU and DATROWAY. About the ADC Portfolio of Daiichi Sankyo The Daiichi Sankyo ADC portfolio consists of seven ADCs in clinical development crafted from two distinct ADC technology platforms discovered in-house by Daiichi Sankyo. The ADC platform furthest in clinical development is Daiichi Sankyo’s DXd ADC Technology where each ADC consists of a monoclonal antibody attached to a number of topoisomerase I inhibitor payloads (an exatecan derivative, DXd) via tetrapeptide-based cleavable linkers. The DXd ADC portfolio currently consists of ENHERTU, a HER2 directed ADC, and DATROWAY, a TROP2 directed ADC, which are being jointly developed and commercialized globally with AstraZeneca. Patritumab deruxtecan (HER3-DXd), a HER3 directed ADC, ifinatamab deruxtecan (I-DXd), a B7-H3 directed ADC, and raludotatug deruxtecan (R-DXd), a CDH6 directed ADC, are being jointly developed and commercialized globally with Merck & Co., Inc, Rahway, NJ, USA. DS-3939, a TA-MUC1 directed ADC, is being developed by Daiichi Sankyo. The second Daiichi Sankyo ADC platform consists of a monoclonal antibody attached to a modified pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) payload. DS-9606, a CLDN6 directed PBD ADC, is the first of several planned ADCs in clinical development utilizing this platform. Ifinatamab deruxtecan, patritumab deruxtecan, raludotatug deruxtecan, DS-3939 and DS-9606 are investigational medicines that have not been approved for any indication in any country. Safety and efficacy have not been established. Please see accompanying full Prescribing Information , including Boxed WARNINGS, and Medication Guide . About Daiichi Sankyo Daiichi Sankyo is an innovative global healthcare company contributing to the sustainable development of society that discovers, develops and delivers new standards of care to enrich the quality of life around the world. With more than 120 years of experience, Daiichi Sankyo leverages its world-class science and technology to create new modalities and innovative medicines for people with cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases with high unmet medical need. For more information, please visit www.daiichisankyo.com . SOURCE: Daiichi Sankyo

Positive data from a Pfizer-partnered antibody-drug conjugate, Roche's new investment in China and Hengrui's upcoming dual listing in Hong Kong made our news this week. Pfizer and RemeGen's HER2 antibody-drug conjugate delivered positive phase 3 results in a bladder cancer trial in China. Roche plans to invest nearly $300 million to build a new Chinese plant to produce Vabysmo. China's Hengrui Pharma is looking to raise up to $1.27 billion in its Hong Kong IPO. And more.1. Pfizer partner RemeGen says HER2 ADC prolongs life in newly diagnosed bladder cancerRemeGen’s Pfizer-partnered HER2 antibody-drug conjugate, disitamab vedotin, was successful in a phase 3 study among Chinese patients with first-line HER2-expressing bladder cancer. The ADC, used alongside Junshi Biosciences’ PD-1 inhibitor toripalimab, outperformed chemotherapy regardless of patients' eligibility for cisplatin or HER2 expression levels. The trial win bodes well for Pfizer’s global DV-001 study, also called Keynote-D74.2. Roche pledges nearly $300M to establish new Vabysmo production plant in ChinaRoche is investing about 2 billion Chinese yuan ($282 million) to build a new biologics plant in Shanghai. The plant will occupy about 25,000 square meters (269,000 square feet) of real estate and will mainly be used for domestic production of the eye med Vabysmo. Construction is expected to finish in 2029, and production could kick off by 2031, according to Roche.3. Hengrui looks to raise up to $1.27B in Hong Kong IPO (Morningstar)Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceutical, already listed in Shanghai, is planning to raise up to HK$9.89 billion ($1.27 billion) in a Hong Kong IPO. The plan involves selling 224.52 million shares at a price range of HK$41.45 to HK$44.05 each. The Chinese pharma giant expects to finalize pricing by May 21 and start trading from May 23.4. Qilu Pharmaceutical pays $38M upfront for greater China rights to Minghui's ADCThe B7-H3 target has yielded another deal. Qilu Pharmaceutical is paying 280 million Chinese yuan ($38 million) upfront for greater China rights to Minghui Pharmaceutical’s B7-H3 ADC, MHB088C. Also in the B7-H3 ADC field, Merck & Co. has licensed ifinatamab deruxtecan from Daiichi Sankyo, GSK got a candidate from Hansoh and BioNTech partnered with Duality Bio.5. CSPC licenses Onivyde copycat to Cipla despite Ipsen patent dispute (release, PDF)Despite a pending patent infringement lawsuit from Ipsen, CSPC Pharmaceutical has penned a deal to license its irinotecan liposome injection in the U.S. to Cipla for $15 million upfront. Milestone payments from the pact could exceed $1 billion. In a lawsuit filed in August 2024, Ipsen alleges that the CSPC candidate infringes a patent for the French pharma’s irinotecan liposome product Onivyde.6. Novartis cancer drugs Kisqali, Scemblix win China approvals (releases, Chinese)In two approvals for Novartis’ business in China, local authorities approved the company’s Kisqali for the adjuvant treatment of early-stage HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, as well as Scemblix for newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia. Both indications have been cleared in the U.S. and are considered major growth drivers for the Swiss pharma.Other News of Note:7. Merck KGaA drops China surcharge on orders after US-China tariff deal (Reuters)8. Sino-American siRNA biotech Sirius Therapeutics raises $50M (release)