Merck stole the show at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) annual conference, with new data on its Moderna-partnered personalized cancer vaccine leaking prior to the presentation and antibody-drug conjugate sac-TMT making a splash in endometrial cancer; Bristol Myers Squibb revealed the death of a patient with multiple sclerosis in an early-stage trial of zola-cel; and pharma is on track to easily surpass last year’s deal count.
The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) annual conference overtook biopharma this past weekend, with Merck, Moderna and a few pancreatic cancer drug developers stealing the show. The big news kicked off on Thursday—inadvertently—when data from Moderna and Merck’s highly anticipated personalized cancer vaccine leaked online. Initially, Wall Street was unimpressed, but after the partners had a chance to present their data at ESMO over the weekend, investors came around.
Meanwhile, Merck TROP2-directed antibody-drug conjugate sac-TMT made a splash, as the company revealed that the Kelun-Biotech–partnered therapy cut the risk of death for patients with advanced endometrial cancer by more than 30%. In an interview prior to ESMO, Merck VP of Chemistry Alan Northrup told BioSpace senior editor Heather McKenzie the ADC gets the payload release “just right,” putting it in the Goldilocks zone.
After the approval of Revolution Medicines’ “miracle drug” Rasonque in August, all eyes at the conference were trained on the pancreatic cancer space, as RevMed, Incyte, Tango Therapeutics and more shared new data from their respective candidates.
Outside of the cancer space, Bristol Myers Squibb revealed that a patient with multiple sclerosis had died in an early-stage trial of its CAR T cell therapy zolacabtagene autoleucel (zola-cel). The death occurred after BMS paused some trials of zola-cel this summer, a company spokesperson told BioSpace in an email.
Novartis’ has also paused autoimmune trials of its own CAR T candidate rapcabtagene autoleucel (rap-cel) after three fatalities. On Tuesday, the pharma confirmed the studies remain paused as researchers investigate the deaths.
Finally, with the last quarter of the year well underway, Big Pharma is on track to easily surpass last year’s deal count, according to a new report by Leerink Partners. Biotech, meanwhile, has recorded 32 IPOs this year, quadrupling 2025’s total of eight.
