Earnings season is in full swing, and if the second-quarter results from GSK and AstraZeneca are anything to go by, the numbers are not the most interesting part of the story.
Behind the headline beats and guidance ranges, both companies used their results calls this week to say something more consequential about where oncology and drug pricing are heading.
GSK’s Pipeline In A Product
GSK is betting big on its antibody-drug conjugates, and this week the data have started to back it up. Hansoh Pharma, which licensed Ris-Rez (risvutatug rezetecan) to GSK for all markets outside greater China in 2023, announced that the B7-H3-targeted ADC met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival in the Phase III ARTEMIS-011 study in relapsed osteosarcoma. Overall survival also favored Ris-Rez. Hansoh plans to use the data to support a biologics license application in China.
This is the second positive Phase III readout for Ris-Rez in quick succession. Earlier this month, the ADC met its primary endpoint in the ARTEMIS-008 study for second-line small-cell lung cancer, making it the only B7-H3-targeted ADC to have delivered positive Phase III results across more than one tumor type.