On August 12, 2025 Erasca, Inc. (Nasdaq: ERAS), a clinical-stage precision oncology company singularly focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing therapies for patients with RAS/MAPK pathway-driven cancers, reported business updates and reported financial results for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2025 (Press release, Erasca, AUG 12, 2025, View Source [SID1234655133]).

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"We are excited by the continued momentum of our RAS-targeting franchise, including its early advancement into the clinic, which has broad application in multiple areas of high unmet medical need," said Jonathan E. Lim, M.D., Erasca’s chairman, CEO, and co-founder. "Importantly, we expect to deliver initial Phase 1 monotherapy data for our potential best-in-class pan-RAS molecular glue ERAS-0015 and our potential first-in-class and best-in-class pan-KRAS inhibitor ERAS-4001 in 2026. Backed by a robust balance sheet and anticipated cash runway into the second half of 2028, we believe that we are strongly equipped to advance our differentiated approaches against this challenging oncogenic driver and bring new hope to patients with RAS-driven tumors."

Research and Development (R&D) Highlights

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IND Cleared for ERAS-4001: In June 2025, Erasca announced clearance of an investigational new drug (IND) application with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its pan-KRAS inhibitor ERAS-4001 for patients with KRAS-mutant (KRASm) solid tumors, which is being evaluated in the BOREALIS-1 Phase 1 trial.

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IND Cleared for ERAS-0015: In May 2025, Erasca announced clearance of an IND application with the FDA for its pan-RAS molecular glue ERAS-0015 for patients with RAS-mutant (RASm) solid tumors, which is being evaluated in the AURORAS-1 Phase 1 trial.

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Presented Encouraging Preclinical Data for RAS-Targeting Franchise: In April 2025, Erasca presented new preclinical data reinforcing the potential best-in-class profiles of Erasca’s RAS-targeting franchise at the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting.
Key Upcoming Milestones

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AURORAS-1: Phase 1 trial for ERAS-0015 (pan-RAS molecular glue) in patients with RASm solid tumors
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Initial Phase 1 monotherapy data expected in 2026
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BOREALIS-1: Phase 1 trial for ERAS-4001 (pan-KRAS inhibitor) in patients with KRASm solid tumors
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Initial Phase 1 monotherapy data expected in 2026

Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results

Cash Position: Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $386.7 million as of June 30, 2025, compared to $440.5 million as of December 31, 2024. Erasca expects its cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities balance of $386.7 million to fund operations into the second half of 2028.

Research and Development (R&D) Expenses: R&D expenses were $21.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2025, compared to $33.0 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by an impairment charge on operating lease assets and property and equipment during the quarter ended June 30, 2024, and decreases in personnel costs, including stock-based compensation expense, outsourced services and consulting fees, expenses incurred in connection with clinical trials, preclinical studies, and discovery activities, and facilities-related expenses and depreciation. Erasca also recorded $7.5 million and $22.5 million of in-process R&D expense during the quarters ended June 30, 2025 and 2024, respectively, for upfront and milestone payments under Erasca’s ERAS-0015 and ERAS-4001 license agreements.

General and Administrative (G&A) Expenses: G&A expenses were $9.5 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2025, compared to $12.3 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by an impairment charge on operating lease assets and property and equipment during the quarter ended June 30, 2024, and a decrease in legal fees.

Net Loss: Net loss was $33.9 million, or $(0.12) per basic and diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2025, compared to $63.2 million, or $(0.29) per basic and diluted share, for the quarter ended Ju

On August 12, 2025 ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ORIC), a clinical stage oncology company focused on developing treatments that address mechanisms of therapeutic resistance, reported financial results and operational updates for the quarter ended June 30, 2025 (Press release, ORIC Pharmaceuticals, AUG 12, 2025, View Source [SID1234655160]).

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"In the first half of the year, we’ve continued to make steady progress towards the potential initiation of Phase 3 studies in 2026 for ORIC-944 in prostate cancer and ORIC-114 (now enozertinib) in lung cancer, and we were pleased to further strengthen our cash position and runway with recent financing activity," stated Jacob M. Chacko, M.D., president and chief executive officer. "As our clinical programs have progressed closer to registrational studies, it necessitates that we increase our focus and direct our expenditures solely on those programs, and so we’ve made the tough, but prudent, decision to substantially reduce our investment in discovery research. This reprioritization and additional financing further extend our cash runway into the second half of 2028. It’s with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our colleagues impacted by the resulting workforce reduction. We are grateful for their many contributions to ORIC, we’re deeply sorry for the upheaval they are experiencing, and we sincerely hope to honor them by advancing our clinical pipeline to benefit patients as rapidly as possible."

Second Quarter 2025 and Other Recent Highlights

ORIC-944: a potent and selective allosteric inhibitor of PRC2

Reported preliminary efficacy and safety data in May 2025, from the ongoing Phase 1b trial of ORIC-944 in combination with AR inhibitors, supporting the potential of ORIC-944 as a best-in-class PRC2 inhibitor that may benefit a broad range of patients with prostate cancer. The data reported as of the May 2025 presentation cutoff dates included:
Broad and deep PSA responses achieved, with 59% PSA50 response rate (confirmed rate of 47%) and 24% PSA90 response rate (all confirmed) in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).
PSA responses were observed across all ORIC-944 dose levels and at comparable rates in combination with apalutamide and with darolutamide; majority of patients were still ongoing with multiple patients approaching one year or more.
Both combination regimens demonstrated a safety profile compatible with long term dosing, with the vast majority of adverse events Grade 1 or 2 and no Grade 4 events.
Presented preclinical ORIC-944 data at the 2025 AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting demonstrating synergistic activity and improved progression-free survival when combined with androgen receptor pathway inhibitors in both castration-resistant and castration-sensitive prostate cancer models, validating the clinical exploration of ORIC-944 across the continuum of prostate cancer.
Enozertinib (formerly ORIC-114): a brain penetrant inhibitor that selectively targets EGFR exon 20, HER2 exon 20 and EGFR atypical mutations

Continue to enroll Phase 1b trial of enozertinib as a single-agent in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR exon 20, HER2 exon 20, or EGFR atypical mutations, including patients with CNS metastases that are either treated or untreated but asymptomatic, across our 2L+ dose optimization cohorts and 1L expansion cohorts.
Continue to enroll Phase 1b trial of enozertinib in combination with subcutaneous (SC) amivantamab in 1L NSCLC patients with EGFR exon 20 mutations.
The World Health Organization International Nonproprietary Names (INN) expert committee has approved "enozertinib" as the nonproprietary (generic) name for ORIC-114.
Corporate Highlights:

Completed a $125 million private placement financing with participation from new and existing healthcare specialist funds and $119 million in issuances from the ATM (at-the-market) facility. Given current cash and investment position, the Company concluded ATM usage and doesn’t expect to utilize the ATM facility for the foreseeable future.
Announced strategic pipeline prioritization to focus operational and financial resources on the continued advancement of the two lead clinical programs, ORIC-944 and enozertinib. This initiative will result in the elimination of the discovery research group with a corresponding 20% workforce reduction. The Company expects to incur a one-time charge of approximately $1.9 million in the third quarter, primarily related to termination benefits, including severance and healthcare-related benefits. The Company will explore potential partnering of its preclinical programs.
As a result of the strategic pipeline prioritization, cash runway is expected to fund the revised operating plan into 2H 2028 (previously 2H 2027), which is beyond anticipated primary endpoint readouts from the first Phase 3 trials for ORIC-944 and enozertinib.
Anticipated Program Milestones:

ORIC anticipates the following upcoming data milestones:

ORIC-944 (mCRPC):
2H 2025: Updated Phase 1b combination data with AR inhibitor(s)
1Q 2026: Combination dose optimization data with AR inhibitor(s)
Enozertinib (ORIC-114) (NSCLC):
2H 2025: 1L EGFR exon 20, 2L EGFR exon 20, 2L+ HER2 exon 20 and 2L+ EGFR atypical data
Mid-2026: 1L EGFR atypical data and 1L EGFR exon 20 combination with SC amivantamab data
Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Investments: Cash, cash equivalents and investments totaled $327.7 million as of June 30, 2025, which includes proceeds from $125.0 million private placement financing in May 2025 and $8.9 million in proceeds from an at-the-market offering of common stock during the quarter. Subsequent to the quarter ended June 30, 2025, the Company raised an additional $108.7 million in net proceeds under the ATM program resulting in proforma cash and investments of $436.4 million as of June 30, 2025. The Company now expects its cash and investments to fund the revised operating plan into 2H 2028.
R&D Expenses: Research and development (R&D) expenses were $30.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2025, compared to $28.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2024, an increase of $1.6 million. For the six months ended June 30, 2025, R&D expenses were $55.2 million, compared to $50.9 million for the six months ended June 30, 2024, an increase of $4.3 million. The increases were due to higher personnel costs, including additional non-cash stock-based compensation, and costs related to the advancement of enozertinib, offset primarily by lower costs from discontinued programs.
G&A Expenses: General and administrative (G&A) expenses were $8.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2025, compared to $7.1 million for the three months ended June 30, 2024, an increase of $1.4 million. For the six months ended June 30, 2025, G&A expenses were $16.6 million, compared to $14.1 million for the six months ended June 30, 2024, an increase of $2.5 million. The increases were primarily due to higher personnel costs and professional services, including additional non-cash stock-based compensation.

On August 11, 2025 GT Biopharma, Inc. (the "Company") (NASDAQ: GTBP), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company focused on developing innovative therapeutics based on the Company’s proprietary TriKE natural killer (NK) cell engager platform, reported initiation of dosing in Cohort 3 of its Phase 1 dose escalation trial evaluating GTB-3650 for the treatment of relapsed or refractory (r/r) CD33 expressing hematologic malignancies (Press release, GT Biopharma, AUG 11, 2025, View Source [SID1234655068]).

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The Phase 1 dose escalation trial is evaluating GTB-3650, GT Biopharma’s second-generation TriKE, for the treatment of relapsed or refractory (r/r) CD33 expressing hematologic malignancies. Cohorts 1 and 2 have now both been successfully completed and following the formal safety reviews, no safety or tolerability issues have been observed. This has allowed initiation of dosing in Cohort 3, with the first patient now having completed the first week of cycle 1.

Patients from Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 have shown encouraging early results indicative of GTB-3650’s ability to activate endogenous NK cells and induce NK cell expansion. Data from multiple blood biomarker assays from the first four patients show heightened immune activity. GT Biopharma plans on releasing initial Phase 1 results later in 2025 following completion of additional dose cohorts.

The trial plans to evaluate GTB-3650 in up to approximately 14 patients (seven cohorts) and GTB-3650 will be dosed in two-week blocks, two weeks on and two weeks off (defining a treatment cycle), for up to four months based on clinical benefit. The trial will assess safety, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, in vivo expansion of endogenous patient NK cells and clinical activity. More details can be found on clinicaltrials.gov with the identifier: NCT06594445.

On August 11, 2025 I-Mab (NASDAQ: IMAB) (the Company), a U.S.-based, global biotech company, focused on the development of precision immuno-oncology agents for the treatment of cancer, reported that enrollment in the planned Phase 1b dose expansion cohorts evaluating givastomig, a bispecific Claudin 18.2 x 4-1BB antibody, in combination with nivolumab and mFOLFOX6, has been completed ahead of expectations (Press release, I-Mab Biopharma, AUG 11, 2025, View Source [SID1234655069]).

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The Phase 1b study (NCT04900818) is evaluating the safety, efficacy, pharmacokinetics (PK), and pharmacodynamics (PD) of givastomig, a potential best-in-class, Claudin 18.2 (CLDN18.2) x 4-1BB bispecific antibody, used in combination with nivolumab and mFOLFOX6, as first line therapy (1L) in patients with CLDN18.2-positive gastric cancers (≥1+ intensity in ≥1% of cells). The primary endpoint is safety. The study enrolled only patients in the U.S. The dose expansion cohorts of the study enrolled a total of 40 patients across two doses (8 mg/kg and 12 mg/kg).

"Our optimism in givastomig has been bolstered by the accelerated pace of enrollment in the Phase 1b trial and the ongoing enthusiasm of the study’s investigators. These observations highlight the unmet need for improved gastric cancer therapy, the oncology community’s growing interest in Claudin 18.2-directed therapies and its awareness of the givastomig clinical program. I am encouraged by the Phase 1b dose escalation data, and hopeful that givastomig can become a new treatment option for patients with Claudin 18.2-positive gastric cancers," said Phillip Dennis, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer of I-Mab. "I especially want to thank the patients, their families, investigators and study sites for their continued support for this program."

Data from the dose escalation cohorts of the study were presented on July 2, 2025 in a Mini Oral presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress (ESMO GI) 2025 in Barcelona, Spain, accessible here. The data showed that givastomig in combination with immunochemotherapy achieved an 83% (10/12) objective response rate (ORR) at the doses (8 mg/kg and 12 mg/kg) selected for dose expansion. Response onset was rapid, durable and deepened over time, with favorable overall safety. I-Mab hosted a virtual investor event on July 8, 2025 reviewing the Phase 1b dose escalation data (accessible for viewing here).

About Givastomig

Givastomig (TJ033721 / ABL111) is a bispecific antibody targeting Claudin 18.2 (CLDN18.2)-positive tumor cells. It conditionally activates T cells through the 4-1BB signaling pathway in the tumor microenvironment where CLDN18.2 is expressed. Givastomig is being developed for first line (1L) metastatic gastric cancers, with further potential in other solid tumors. In Phase 1 trials, givastomig has shown promising anti-tumor activity attributable to a potential synergistic effect of proximal interaction between CLDN18.2 on tumor cells and 4-1BB on T cells in the tumor microenvironment, while minimizing toxicities commonly seen with other 4-1BB agents.

An ongoing Phase 1b study is evaluating givastomig for the treatment of gastric cancer in the 1L setting in combination with standard of care, nivolumab (an anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor) plus chemotherapy, in dose escalation (n=17) and dose expansion (n=40) cohorts. The study builds on positive Phase 1 monotherapy data.

Givastomig is being jointly developed through a global partnership with ABL Bio, in which I-Mab is the lead party and shares worldwide rights, excluding Greater China and South Korea, equally with ABL Bio.

On August 11, 2025 Assertio Holdings, Inc. ("Assertio" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: ASRT), a pharmaceutical company with comprehensive commercial capabilities offering differentiated products designed to address patients’ needs, reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025.

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Said Brendan O’Grady, Chief Executive Officer, "The second quarter business and financial results demonstrate continued progress executing our 2025 transformation priorities intended to create sustainable near-term growth and increased long-term value. As part of our transformation process, we are taking steps to streamline our operations to secure additional operating expense savings. We started this process with the divestment of Assertio Therapeutics as communicated last quarter. Pursuant to this effort, we are also consolidating products from previously acquired subsidiaries to further optimize our cost structure.

"Based on strong commercial execution in our core growth assets, Rolvedon achieved the highest level of customer demand since we acquired the product and Sympazan continues to see growth in both prescribers and prescription demand. The remainder of our portfolio is tracking to our expectations. In addition, balance sheet cash and investments increased to more than $98 million as a result of our focus and continued business performance."

(Press release, Assertio Holdings, AUG 11, 2025, View Source [SID1234661832])