Shattuck exits oncology

Shattuck Labs’ anti-CD47 contender SL-172154 was supposed to bypass issues that have hit other projects in this class, but on Tuesday the company discontinued development following lacklustre overall survival data. Shattuck's stock closed down 45%. The group, which is cutting its workforce by 40%, will now focus on SL-325 in inflammatory bowel disease. SL-172154 had been in a phase 1 study in combination with azacitidine in first-line TP53-mutant acute myeloid leukaemia and high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome. Response rates previously looked promising, albeit amid worries about cardiovascular adverse events. However, OS, at around 10.5 months in both TP53m AML and MDS, wasn’t meaningfully better than historical data with azacitidine alone, Shattuck said on Tuesday. Despite numerous setbacks in CD47 there are still around 50 active clinical-stage projects, according to OncologyPipeline. Notably, Akeso just took its contender, ligufalimab, into phase 3, while ALX appears to be persevering with evorpacept, despite the Aspen-06 trial in gastric cancer recently disappointing. Meanwhile, Shattuck isn’t alone in turning away from cancer: others to pivot to autoimmune and inflammatory diseases recently include Adicet and, only this week, IGM Biosciences.

Anti-CD47 projects in late-stage development

Source: OncologyPipeline.