I-Mab (NASDAQ:IMAB) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

John Hayslip: Yeah. I would just add that we’ve been working with WuXi Diagnostics throughout the development program regarding the CD73 biomarker assay. And so the trial that we reported, we enrolled — we allowed patients to enroll who had newly diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer who were not eligible or who refused to receive chemotherapy. In other words, the patients were allowed to enroll before they even knew their CD73 expression. So CD73 expression to the broader group, that was not an entry criteria. So we would believe we’re within the setting of a modest-sized clinical trial. The rates that we observed may be consistent with what we would generally observe in future studies. So of course, the precision around that, we need larger studies to increase our confidence.

So I think the rates are — I think that’s what we know about the rates of the double high population. But as Raj said, importantly, as we move the program forward, we do see, as you mentioned, with checkpoint inhibitors, which themselves are not so efficacious as monotherapy for patients with lower PD-L1 expression. But when you combine checkpoint inhibitors with chemotherapy, then the benefit of checkpoint inhibitors expands to the really the broad population of newly diagnosed patients of lung cancer. And so we’re optimistic that as we move forward in combinations with chemotherapy, that, that similar — that rates of benefit like that may extend to the broader patient population and not just those who were elevated prior to the initiation of treatment.

Tyler Ehler: Thank you for your question, Xiaoyi. I’d like to direct the next question to Bing Zhao. Bing, please go ahead.

Bing Zhao: Yeah. Thank you for taking my questions. This is Bing Zhao from China Renaissance. I’m still interesting about the call the Claudin18.2 and 4-1BB bispecific antibody. Because I realize that the status Claudin 18.2 8. antibody is going to be listened in US, probably second half of this year. And also Astellas is looking for listing in China Mainland as well. So I’m wondering if their products being commercialized, what is affected our future clinical plan? And also, I realize that for Claudin — for biospecific antibody, there are many combinations on the market, let’s say, for example, Claudin 18.2 is with CD3 or Claudin with PD-L1, but I’m interested to know more biologics behind why we choose the Claudin and 4-1BB instead of the other targets? Thank you.

Raj Kannan: Thank you for your question, Bing Zhao. I think as we — as you’re talking about the positive is there’s a lot of interest in the Claudin 18.2 space itself. It’s a highly relevant tumor antigen. And as you said, there’s a lot of work going on. And we’re excited about the differentiation that givastomig has, as we articulated in our prepared remarks, John, do you want to specifically address some of the differences that givastomig to what Bing Zhao brought up in his question?

John Hayslip: Yeah. Thank you. So maybe first, I’ll just touch upon, we are aware of a lot of the work being done in the field. And I’ll just first touch on CAR-T cell therapies, which may hold significant potential. The cost and tolerability may relegate that approach to patients who have received previous treatments in the past. Similarly, we have seen some early reports from ADC type therapies and some of those with encouraging results. But really, we think it’s too early to know about those drugs if they’ll eventually get to the market or not. And in the past, for example, ADC-type drugs have not always combined well with established treatments. And therefore, are sometimes used after established treatments have been exhausted.