Xencor axes its pipeline lead

Xencor's keenly awaited go/no go decision on the anti-PD-1 x CTLA-4 bispecific vudalimab is in, and it's a no. Until now vudalimab, a potential challenger to AstraZeneca's similarly acting volrustomig, was Xencor's lead pipeline asset, but during Thursday's fourth-quarter announcement Xencor slipped in the news that development was being "paused" to prioritise other assets. Vudalimab no longer appears in its R&D pipeline. While axing your lead project is never positive, perhaps the move isn't entirely unexpected; vudalimab monotherapy disappointed in prostate cancer, and combo data in this tumour and NSCLC were due this year. Xencor says enrolment into these trials was completed in December, so presumably any efficacy seen was underwhelming. There is also uncertainty surrounding XmAb808, a bispecific targeting B7-H3 and CD28 that Xencor highlighted last September. Xencor, which earlier revealed two dose-limiting toxicities in its phase 1 trial (infusion-related reaction and immune-related hepatitis with grade 4 liver enzyme elevations), now says it will not, after all, be starting expansion cohorts of a Keytruda pairing, looking instead to combos with T-cell engaging bispecifics. Such uncertainty adds further doubts for Xencor, which earlier canned an anti-CD38 project and moved plamotamab out of oncology and into autoimmune indications.