Gilead mirrors Merck’s endometrial cancer effort

Gilead is continuing to invest in Trodelvy, despite the drug being so far relegated to somewhat niche bladder and breast cancer markets. Including approved uses the anti-TROP2 ADC is now the subject of 14 pivotal studies, the latest of which is in second-line or later endometrial cancer, according to a just revealed clinicaltrials.gov listing. This last setting, in which Merck & Co’s Keytruda and GSK’s Jemperli are approved, has little competition from other TROP2-targeted ADCs, the only other such project in phase 3 being Merck & Co’s Kelun-derived sacituzumab tirumotecan, which began the pivotal Trofuse-005 trial last November. Anyone suspecting that Gilead, which paid $21bn for Trodelvy’s maker, Immunomedics, is mirroring Merck’s efforts will note that the new study, Ascent-Gyn-01, has an extremely similar design to Merck’s Trofuse-005; the settings are virtually identical, and the comparator and co-primary endpoints are the same.

Phase 3 studies of anti-TROP2 ADCs in endometrial cancer

Source: OncologyPipeline.