Inhibrx's OX40 drug shows first cancer responses — SkimNews
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- Inhibrx said Tuesday its experimental immunotherapy targeting the protein OX40 showed responses in patients with head and neck cancer.
- The most striking results came in a small subset of patients with HPV-positive tumors — a detail the source flags could significantly limit the drug's use.
- Pfizer, Genentech, GSK, and AstraZeneca all previously tried and failed to use OX40 as a weapon against tumors over the past 15 years.
- Mark Lappe, Inhibrx's CEO, called the results "really gratifying" and likened the effort to "pushing a rock up a hill, because there's been so much failure in the space."
Why it matters: After a decade and a half of high-profile industry failures against OX40, Inhibrx is the first to post a response signal — but because the strongest data came in a small HPV-positive subset, the drug's addressable population may be far narrower than a broad head-and-neck cancer label, and proving efficacy in HPV-negative patients is now the decisive test.
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