On January 13, 2026 Immunofoco, a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing innovative CAR-T cell therapies for solid tumors, reported clinical data from its Phase I/IIa study of IMC002, a VHH-based anti-CLDN18.2 CAR-T therapy, in patients with advanced gastric cancer and gastroesophageal junction cancer (GC/GEJ). The data were presented as a poster (Abstract No. 398) at the 2026 ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO GI 2026).

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The study is a multicenter, open-label, dose-escalation Phase I/IIa trial designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of IMC002 in patients with CLDN18.2-positive, locally advanced or metastatic GC/GEJ who had failed at least two prior lines of systemic therapy. The results presented at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) GI 2026 focus on the GC/GEJ cohort.

As of the data cutoff on August 8, 2025, 16 patients had received a single infusion of IMC002 and were included in the safety analysis, with 15 patients evaluable for efficacy. IMC002 demonstrated a favorable and manageable safety profile, with no dose-limiting toxicities observed during the dose-escalation phase. Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) occurred in all patients but was limited to Grade 1 or 2, and no Grade ≥3 CRS, ICANS, or treatment-related deaths were reported.

In evaluable patients, IMC002 achieved an objective response rate (ORR) of 66.7% (10/15). Survival data were immature at the time of analysis, with a median progression-free survival (mPFS) of 7.0 months (95% CI: 3.9, NA) and a median overall survival (OS) of 10.3 months (95% CI: 6.1, NA).

Notably, one patient in the 2.5×10⁸ CAR-T cell dose cohort achieved a complete response (CR) and has remained tumor-free for 60 weeks, demonstrating antitumor activity following IMC002 treatment in a heavily pretreated setting.

Further analyses indicated that IMC002 provided clinically meaningful PFS benefits in third-line and later-line GC/GEJ patients, comparing favorably with historical outcomes reported for this population. Together with its well-tolerated safety profile, these findings support the continued clinical development of IMC002 and its potential evaluation in earlier-line treatment settings.

"IMC002 demonstrated a controllable safety profile and encouraging antitumor activity in patients with advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers, including those who had failed multiple prior lines of therapy," said Professor Jianming Xu, corresponding author of the study and Professor at the First Medical Center of the Chinese PLA General Hospital. "Of particular clinical significance, one patient achieved a complete response lasting for more than one year. These findings provide important clinical evidence supporting the application of CLDN18.2-targeted CAR-T therapy in solid tumors, and the favorable safety profile also opens the possibility for future exploration in earlier-line settings and strategies aimed at long-term clinical benefit."

IMC002 is a novel CLDN18.2-targeted CAR-T cell therapy incorporating a highly specific VHH domain, designed to enhance tumor targeting while maintaining a favorable safety profile in solid tumors. Based on the encouraging results from this Phase I/IIa study, a Phase III randomized controlled trial of IMC002 in late-line GC/GEJ patients has been initiated.

The presentation at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) GI 2026 highlights Immunofoco’s continued progress in advancing CAR-T cell therapies for solid tumors and underscores the therapeutic potential of CLDN18.2-targeted approaches in addressing significant unmet medical needs in advanced gastrointestinal cancers.

(Press release, Immunofoco, JAN 13, 2026, View Source;highlighting-a-durable-complete-response-beyond-one-year-and-a-66-7-orr-in-advanced-gcgej-302659498.html [SID1234661990])

On January 13, 2026 Purple Biotech presented its corporate presentation.

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(Presentation, Purple Biotech, JAN 13, 2026, View Source [SID1234662019])

On January 13, 2026 Vivere Oncotherapies, a UC Berkeley spin-out developing cancer therapies that activate the immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells in immunologically cold tumors, reported over $10M in funding from YK Bioventures, Pillar, Berkeley Frontier Fund, Freeflow Ventures and The National Cancer Institute. Leveraging technology that enables engineering of targeted immunotherapies, Vivere will develop transformative treatments for difficult-to-treat cancers that otherwise evade immune system detection and for which there are few effective treatments.

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Solid tumors such as colorectal and ovarian are among the most difficult cancers to treat. These tumors are characterized by their lack of immune-cell infiltration, making them resistant to conventional immunotherapies like checkpoint inhibitors. Despite decades of research, there has been limited success in cracking the code on cold tumors, leaving patients with few options and poor prognosis.

"Vivere’s goal is to empower the patients’ immune systems to fight off cancer. Our team is united by a belief that cold tumors are not inherently untreatable, just misunderstood," said Melissa Kotterman, Ph.D., CEO of Vivere Oncotherapies. "We’ve spent years building a platform capable of breaking through the immunological invisibility of these tumors. With the support of our investors, we’re now poised to bring a new generation of targeted immunotherapies to patients who currently have no effective options."

"Building Vivere’s platform has been about rethinking what’s possible in cancer therapy. From its early days, the vision was to build a platform that could finally unmask cold tumors to the immune system through improved delivery of targeted and safe therapies," said David Schaffer, Ph.D., Co-founder of Vivere Oncotherapies and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley and Director of QB3 and Bakar Labs. "Our team’s rare combination of engineering, immunology, and translational expertise paired with our experience in building clinical-stage biotech companies gives us the tools to tackle problems others have deemed intractable."

(Press release, Vivere Oncotherapies, JAN 13, 2026, View Source [SID1234662034])

On January 13, 2026 BeOne Medicines Ltd. (NASDAQ: ONC; HKEX: 06160; SSE: 688235), a global oncology company, reported it will outline the pillars of its growing global oncology leadership during its presentation at the 44th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.

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John V. Oyler, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO at BeOne, will highlight the Company’s transformative leadership in treating B-cell malignancies. The presentation will feature BRUKINSA, the global leader among Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors, as well as foundational hematology assets: sonrotoclax, a next-generation and potentially best-in-class B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) inhibitor that received its first global regulatory approvals on December 30, and BGB-16673, a potentially first-in-class and best-in-class BTK chimeric degradation activation compound (CDAC). In addition, Mr. Oyler will share further information on BeOne’s global development superhighway, which encompasses global, wholly internal, and competitively advantaged clinical capabilities that can greatly reduce the cost and time to develop a new medicine, thereby increasing the speed of access to innovation for patients around the world.

"BeOne is emerging as the world’s leading oncology company with established leadership in the treatment of B-cell malignancies, an industry-leading pipeline and a unique set of internal capabilities to address tremendous unmet patient need around the world," Mr. Oyler said. "BRUKINSA has entrenched itself as the best-in-class, foundational BTK inhibitor and global revenue leader with an unparallelled long-term efficacy and safety profile across all approved indications. The investigational combination of BRUKINSA and BCL2 inhibitor sonrotoclax has the potential to change the fixed-duration treatment landscape for CLL with best-in-class rates and kinetics of minimal residual disease. BGB-16673 is the most advanced BTK degrader in the clinic and continues to emerge as a potential first-in-class and best-in-class treatment. Combining one of the industry’s most innovative research teams with our vertically integrated clinical development capabilities puts us in a strong position for our next phase of growth with a solid financial profile and a growing global footprint."

Key themes from BeOne’s presentation (7:30 a.m. PT, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026) at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference include:

BeOne is the only company with potentially best-in-class, foundational medicines in three key MOAs in CLL

BeOne is the leading company in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with three approved or clinical-stage foundational medicines addressing all patient subtypes.

BRUKINSA is now the global revenue leader in the BTKi class and the only BTKi to demonstrate superior progression-free survival (PFS) and cardiac safety profile versus ibrutinib in a Phase 3 head-to-head trial. At the American Society of Hematology (ASH) (Free ASH Whitepaper) Annual Meeting in December, the Company presented landmark six-year results from the global, Phase 3 SEQUOIA trial of BRUKINSA versus bendustamine plus rituximab (BR) in treatment-naïve CLL or small lymphocytic lymphoma with an estimated 74% PFS compared with 32% PFS for BR. The overall survival (OS) at 72 months was 84% for BRUKINSA and 80% with BR. After adjusting for COVID-19, the OS rates were 88% and 82%, respectively.

BeOne is rapidly advancing the investigational combination of BRUKINSA and sonrotoclax as a potential best-in-class fixed-duration regimen for the treatment of first-line CLL with clinical results showing potential best-in-class rates of undetectable minimal residual disease (uMRD) at the earliest time as exploratory endpoints. The Company anticipates uMRD results from the Phase 3 CELESTIAL trial of zanubrutinib plus sonrotoclax (ZS) versus venetoclax plus obinutuzumab (VO) in 2026.

In addition, the Company continues to advance BGB-16673 as a potentially first-in-class and best-in-class targeted degrader of BTK with Phase 1 trial results in heavily pretreated CLL patients at a median follow-up of 18 months demonstrating an overall response rate of 86% and 12-month progression-free survival of 79%. The Company anticipates potentially pivotal Phase 2 trial results for BGB-16673 in R/R CLL in 2026.

BeOne’s peerless global development superhighway combined with an industry-leading oncology R&D team drives faster development, accelerated regulatory registrations, and broader global patient access

BeOne is leveraging one of the largest oncology research teams in the industry alongside nearly 6,000 clinical development and manufacturing colleagues supporting the Company’s wholly internal, strategically advantaged global development superhighway to rapidly bring our medicines to cancer patients around the world.

The Company’s dedicated team of research scientists holds deep expertise in designing innovative small-molecule inhibitors, biologics, targeted protein degraders, multispecific antibodies and antibody drug conjugates. In the past 18 months, the Company has advanced 15 New Molecular Entities (NME) into the clinic across a broad range of modalities and expects to deliver an additional eight to 10 NMEs per year into the clinic starting in 2026. BeOne plans to share updates for the following programs, each of which has achieved clinical proof of concept and presents a significant market opportunity: CDK4 inhibitor, B7-H4 ADC, PRMT5 inhibitor, GPC3x41BB bispecific antibody, and CEA ADC.

A strong financial profile enables investment for BeOne’s future growth

BeOne’s strong financial position enables the Company to achieve greater global scale while maintaining profitability in 2026 and beyond.

The Company generated more than $350 million in free cash flow in the third quarter of 2025 with more than $4 billion in cash on hand. BeOne will continue to invest in driving innovation across its hematology and solid tumor pipelines to maximize long-term value for patients and shareholders while pursuing value-creating business development, including opportunities to leverage the Company’s global development superhighway.

Live webcast of BeOne’s presentation can be accessed from the investors section of the Company’s website at View Source Archived replays will be available on the Company’s website.

(Press release, BeOne Medicines, JAN 13, 2026, View Source [SID1234662020])

On January 13, 2026 Daiichi Sankyo reported the first patient has been dosed in the TROPIONLung17 phase 3 trial evaluating DATROWAY (datopotamab deruxtecan) compared to docetaxel in patients with TROP2 NMR positive locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without actionable genomic alterations previously treated with immunotherapy and platinum-based chemotherapy.

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DATROWAY is a specifically engineered TROP2 directed DXd antibody drug conjugate (ADC) discovered by Daiichi Sankyo (TSE: 4568) and being jointly developed and commercialized by Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca (LSE/STO/Nasdaq: AZN).

The current standard first-line treatment for advanced NSCLC without actionable genomic alterations is immunotherapy with or without platinum-based chemotherapy. 1 However, most patients will eventually experience disease progression and traditional chemotherapy remains the current standard of care in the second-line and beyond settings. 2,3,4,5 While TROP2 is a protein broadly expressed on the surface and inside of NSCLC cells, there is no established predictive biomarker that can identify patients who may benefit from a TROP2 directed antibody drug conjugate. 6,7 TROPION-Lung17 is the first phase 3 clinical trial to prospectively enroll patients with tumors that test positively for TROP2 NMR, a biomarker measured using Quantitative Continuous Scoring (QCS), which is AstraZeneca’s computational pathology platform.

"We initiated TROPION-Lung17 to further evaluate DATROWAY in this patient population, building on results from retrospective analyses of several clinical trials, including TROPION-Lung01, which showed a correlation between TROP2 NMR positivity and outcomes for patients with lung cancer," said Abderrahmane Laadem, MD, Head, Late-Stage Oncology Clinical Development, Daiichi Sankyo.

"TROPION-Lung17 is the first phase 3 trial to prospectively enroll patients using a TROP2 biomarker to determine whether DATROWAY can improve survival compared to current standard of care chemotherapy."

"TROPION-Lung17 aspires to bring a precision medicine approach to patients with advanced lung cancer in the second-line setting, where traditional chemotherapy remains the standard of care," said Leora Horn, MD, MSC, FRCPC, Senior Vice President, Late Development Oncology, AstraZeneca. "Research has shown DATROWAY has the potential to improve outcomes in this setting, and we are confident the TROP2 NMR biomarker and its investigational AI-powered companion diagnostic – previously granted a Breakthrough Device Designation in the U.S. – can help us bring this medicine to the patients most likely to benefit."

TROPION-Lung17 is the ninth phase 3 trial evaluating DATROWAY in NSCLC. Ongoing trials in advanced NSCLC include four phase 3 trials in the first-line metastatic setting evaluating DATROWAY in combination with immunotherapy in tumors without actionable genomic alterations (AVANZAR, TROPION-Lung07, TROPION-Lung08 and TROPION-Lung10) and one phase 3 trial of DATROWAY in combination with osimertinib, AstraZeneca’s EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), (TROPION-Lung14) in EGFR-mutated NSCLC. Additional later-line phase 3 trials include evaluating DATROWAY with or without osimertinib (TROPION-Lung15) and DATROWAY alone (TROPION-Lung17).

About TROPION-Lung17

TROPION-Lung17 is a global, multicenter, randomized, open-label, phase 3 trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of DATROWAY (6 mg/kg) versus docetaxel in patients with TROP2 NMR positive locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous NSCLC without actionable genomic alterations previously treated with PD-1/PDL1 inhibitor therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy. All patients will undergo prospective and central tumor testing for TROP2 NMR using the investigational VENTANA TROP2 (EPR20043) RxDx Device (comprised of the companion diagnostic assay and computational pathology algorithm) and those with TROP2 NMR positive tumors will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either DATROWAY or docetaxel.

The dual primary endpoints of TROPION-Lung17 are progression-free survival as assessed by blinded independent central review and overall survival. Key secondary endpoints include overall response rate, duration of response and safety.

TROPION-Lung17 will enroll approximately 400 patients across multiple sites in Asia, Europe and North America. For more information visit ClinicalTrials.gov.

About TROP2 NMR

TROP2 is a protein broadly expressed in NSCLC tumors.6,7 TROP2 expression on the surface of tumor cells, as measurable with conventional pathology methods, has not been predictive of patient responses to TROP2 directed therapies.8,9 Normalized membrane ratio (NMR) refers to the QCS enabled measure of a tumor cell’s surface TROP2 expression, relative to its surface and cytoplasm TROP2 expression. NSCLC is considered TROP2 NMR positive if at least 75% of tumor cells have a greater proportion of TROP2 in the cytoplasm. TROP2 NMR is being developed to identify patients with NSCLC most likely to benefit from treatment with DATROWAY

Exploratory analyses of the TROPION-Lung01 phase 3, TROPION-Lung02 phase 2 and TROPIONPanTumor02 phase 2 trials have shown a correlation between TROP2 NMR positivity and improved clinical outcomes in patients with NSCLC treated with DATROWAY

Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca are collaborating with Roche Tissue Diagnostics to co-develop and commercialize the VENTANA TROP2 (EPR20043) RxDx Device as a novel AI-powered companion diagnostic for DATROWAY in lung cancer. The device was granted Breakthrough Device Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In addition to TROPION-Lung17, it is being used to analyze tissue samples in the TROPION-Lung10 and AVANZAR phase 3 trials.

About Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the most common cancer globally and is the leading cause of cancer-related death in both men and women.10 More than 2.48 million lung cancer cases were diagnosed in 2022, with 1.8 million deaths globally. NSCLC is the most common type of lung cancer, accounting for approximately 85% of cases.

For patients with advanced NSCLC without actionable genomic alterations, immunotherapy with or without platinum-based chemotherapy is the standard first-line treatment.1 While these medicines have improved outcomes in the first-line metastatic setting, most patients experience disease progression and traditional chemotherapy remains the standard of care in the second-line and beyond setting.

About DATROWAY

DATROWAY (datopotamab deruxtecan; datopotamab deruxtecan-dlnk in the U.S. only) is a TROP2 directed ADC. Designed using Daiichi Sankyo’s proprietary DXd ADC Technology, DATROWAY is one of six DXd ADCs in the oncology pipeline of Daiichi Sankyo, and one of the most advanced programs in AstraZeneca’s ADC scientific platform. DATROWAY is comprised of a humanized anti-TROP2 IgG1 monoclonal antibody, developed in collaboration with Sapporo Medical University, attached to a number of topoisomerase I inhibitor payloads (an exatecan derivative, DXd) via tetrapeptide-based cleavable linkers.

DATROWAY (6 mg/kg) is approved in more than 40 countries/regions worldwide for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HR positive, HER2 negative (IHC 0, IHC 1+ or IHC 2+/ISH-) breast cancer who have received prior endocrine-based therapy and chemotherapy for unresectable or metastatic disease based on the results from the TROPION-Breast01 trial.

DATROWAY (6 mg/kg) is approved in Russia and the U.S. for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated NSCLC who have received prior EGFR-directed therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy based on the results from the TROPION-Lung05 and TROPION-Lung01 trials. Continued approval for this indication in the U.S. may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trial.

(Press release, Daiichi Sankyo, JAN 13, 2026, View Source [SID1234662021])