Cantargia has presented new data concerning its IL1RAP-targeting antibody, nadunolimab (CAN04), which demonstrates the drug’s ability to reduce levels of tumour-promoting molecules in a pancreatic cancer (PDAC) microenvironment model. Similar reductions have been observed in PDAC and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with nadunolimab. Importantly, an IL-1β targeting antibody showed no such effect (nadunolimab blocks both IL-1α and IL-1β activation). Investors will recall the failure of Novartis’s canakinumab (an anti-IL-1β antibody) to demonstrate meaningful survival benefits in Phase III trials for the treatment of NSCLC in October 2021. In our view, the newly presented data provide encouraging differentiation for nadunolimab’s mechanism of action (complete IL-1 pathway abrogation) in oncology. Our valuation of Cantargia is unchanged at SEK7.35bn or SEK44.0 per share.
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