AACR 2024 preview – more companies pile into popular mechanisms

Most attention at the upcoming AACR meeting might be on clinical-stage projects, but several preclinical assets could also be worth watching, given their activity against hot targets. A case in point is Nectin-4, where Pfizer/Astellas’s ADC Padcev has set the pace, with plenty of others following. AACR abstracts reveal several preclinical ADCs, as well as a Nectin-4-targeted γδ cell therapy from Century Therapeutics. KRAS inhibition is another hot area, and AACR will see preclinical data on various G12D-selective projects, while multi-KRAS inhibitors are also set to feature, including Boehringer’s BI 3706674 and Quanta's "G12V-preferring" QTX3544. The pan-KRAS field is led by Revolution Medicines, but there is also plenty of early-stage interest; the G12D-selective field is getting increasingly crowded, and recently saw Jazz pick up a preclinical candidate from Redx. And, in an area that has seen a resurgence of late, Zymeworks has just unveiled a trispecific antibody targeting DLL3, CD3 and CD28. DLL3 blockade has come back into vogue after Amgen produced promising data in the phase 2 Dellphi-301 trial with its bispecific T-cell engager tarlatamab at last year’s ESMO meeting; that project has a PDUFA date of 12 June in advanced small-cell lung cancer.

Notable preclinical abstracts at AACR 2024

Source: AACR 2024. This story has been updated to include QTX3544.

The 2024 AACR meeting takes place in San Diego on 5-10 April.