NextCure doubles down on Lair

Despite seeing its valuation whittled down to $50m NextCure continues to pursue novel oncology targets, yesterday doubling down on the Lair-2 fusion protein NC410. OncologyPipeline reveals no other clinical-stage industry projects that either have this mechanism or hit the related protein Lair-1 – the target of NC525, which NextCure has now put up for partnering. However, preliminary NC410 data warrant caution: a 43% response rate in relapsed/refractory ovarian cancer seems impressive at first, but this involves an NC410/Keytruda combo in seven checkpoint inhibitor-naive patients, and two of the three remissions are unconfirmed. It’s a similar story in colorectal cancer, where NC410 plus Keytruda has yielded two responses among 19 checkpoint-naive subjects. The microcap group revealed this at a fourth-quarter update alongside a 37% workforce reduction designed to stretch its $108m of year-end cash to the second half of 2026. An NC410 monotherapy trial was terminated last year, and NextCure earlier scrapped NC318, a once-promising MAb against the novel target Siglec-15. Also no longer in the pipeline is the anti-B7-H4 MAb NC762, replaced by the similarly acting LegoChem-partnered ADC LNCB74. Unlike Lair proteins, however, the B7-H4 space is highly competitive, and LNCB74 is still preclinical.