On November 3, 2025 Pyxis Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: PYXS), a clinical-stage company developing next-generation therapeutics for difficult-to-treat cancers, reported a business update, and announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2025.

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"In the dynamic landscape of emerging clinical-stage therapies for patients with recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, a significant unmet medical need remains despite the potential improvements in treatment options," said Lara S. Sullivan, M.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer of Pyxis Oncology. "We look forward to presenting our preliminary data from the ongoing clinical studies evaluating MICVO as a novel potential treatment option for recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. We believe that the breadth of the MICVO clinical program, encompassing monotherapy and combination approaches, holds significant promise and this inflection point will further underscore our first-in-concept ADC’s potential to improve outcomes across multiple lines of therapy."

Pipeline & Corporate Updates
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Pyxis Oncology expects to report preliminary data from the ongoing Phase 1 clinical studies of micvotabart pelidotin (MICVO) in patients with recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC) in 4Q25.

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Clinical update to focus on preliminary data from the Phase 1 monotherapy dose expansion study of MICVO for 2L/3L R/M HNSCC patients, including both the post platinum and anti-PD(L)-1 experienced arm and the post EGFRi and anti-PD(L)-1 experienced arm.
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Additional preliminary clinical data from the Phase 1/2 combination dose escalation study of MICVO and KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) for 1L/2L+ R/M HNSCC patients will also be provided. The combination study is part of a Clinical Trial Collaboration Agreement with Merck (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada).
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Pyxis Oncology expects to announce next steps in the clinical development plan for MICVO for R/M HNSCC along with the preliminary data update.

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Pyxis Oncology presented new translational data in October 2025 in two posters at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) (Free ESMO Whitepaper) Congress 2025 and in six posters at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper)-NCI-EORTC International Conference, as well as three clinical trial in progress posters at ESMO (Free ESMO Whitepaper). The presentation posters at ESMO (Free ESMO Whitepaper) and AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper)-NCI-EORTC provided deeper insights into the pharmacodynamic responses of tumors to MICVO as well as MICVO’s unique mechanism of action and its potential to exert anti-tumor activity through three mechanisms: direct tumor cell killing, bystander killing and immunogenic cell death.
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Translational findings highlighted MICVO’s effects on tumor microenvironment remodeling and immune activation, further reinforcing the potential benefit of MICVO as both a monotherapy and in combination with anti-PD1 therapy.
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Observations included changes in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) tumor fraction (TF) to the vast majority of 37 clinical samples tested. Notably, reduction in ctDNA TF after treatment with MICVO, particularly in HNSCC and at the 5.4 mg/kg dose, support a positive molecular response to MICVO and strengthen rationale for continued development for this tumor type and dose in the monotherapy dose expansion study.
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Additionally, features observed in nonclinical samples of the stromal architecture detected using AI-enabled hyper-resolution digital pathology may correlate with sensitivity to MICVO – a finding that may be unique compared to tumor cell surface targeting ADCs, due to MICVO’s targeting of a non-cellular structural component of the extracellular matrix.

Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results

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As of September 30, 2025, Pyxis Oncology had cash and cash equivalents, including restricted cash, and short-term investments, of $77.7 million. The Company believes that its current cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments will be sufficient to fund its operations into the second half of 2026.

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Research and development expenses were $17.8 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, compared to $17.7 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. MICVO program-specific research and development costs increased by $2.0 million, primarily due to a $1.0 million increase in contract manufacturing costs and a $1.3 million increase in clinical trial related expenses related to monotherapy and combination therapy of MICVO. The increase in expenses was partially offset by a $1.8 million reduction in expenses related to PYX-106, as the clinical development of PYX-106 was paused in December 2024.

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General and administrative expenses were $5.6 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, compared to $6.0 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. The decrease was primarily due to lower corporate insurance costs and a decrease in legal, professional and consulting fees.

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Net loss was $22.0 million, or ($0.35) per common share, for the quarter ended September 30, 2025, compared to $21.2 million, or ($0.35) per common share, for the quarter ended September 30, 2024. Excluding non-cash stock-based compensation expense, the net loss for the quarter ended September 30, 2025 was $18.9 million, compared to a net loss of $18.2 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2024.

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As of October 31, 2025, the outstanding number of shares of Common Stock of Pyxis Oncology was 62,264,215.

(Press release, Pyxis Oncology, NOV 3, 2025, View Source [SID1234659277])