ALX Oncology’s evorpacept shows efficacy in Phase 2 gastric cancer trial

ALX Oncology announced positive prespecified interim Phase 2 data from its ASPEN-06 clinical trial, a randomized multi-center international study evaluating evorpacept, the company’s CD47 blocking therapeutic, in combination with trastuzumab, Cyramza and paclitaxel for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive gastric/gastroesophageal junction – GEJ – cancer. A confirmed overall response rate of 52% was demonstrated for evorpacept in combination with trastuzumab + Cyramza + paclitaxel compared to 22% for the control group of trastuzumab + Cyramza + paclitaxel. Median duration of response was not reached for the evorpacept combination treatment arm compared to 7.4 months for the control group. The safety profile of evorpacept was consistent with previous clinical trials and was well-tolerated. These interim results compare favorably to the efficacy reported for Cyramza + paclitaxel in the Rainbow study- ORR of 28% and mDOR of 4.4 months -, which is the regulatory benchmark and global standard of care for second line gastric/GEJ cancer. ALX looks forward to reporting the final analysis from the ongoing Phase 2 ASPEN-06 study in Q2 2024 and plans to initiate the Phase 3 portion of ASPEN-06 in late 2024.