Hansoh Pharmaceutical’s pair of much-hyped ADCs continue to justify partner GSK’s decision to elevate them to “priority asset” status.
The latest evidence of the therapies’ potential comes from a phase 3 study in China of risvutatug rezetecan (ris-rez), a B7-H3-targeted ADC. The trial hit its primary endpoint of overall survival in patients with advanced or relapsed small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) when compared against standard-of-care chemotherapy, according to a July 10 release.
The companies touted the win as the “first positive phase 3 overall survival data reported for a B7-H3-targeted ADC in any tumour type.” While the release didn’t offer up any specific data, Hansoh will now use the findings to fuel an approval push in China.
B7-H3 is highly expressed in SCLC tumors, GSK pointed out, which put the latest results in the context of the “growing body of evidence supporting the encouraging clinical activity and manageable safety profile of ris-rez in these patients.”
“Together, with other data generated to date, [these results] further support the potential of B7-H3 as a promising target across lung cancer and other solid tumours and reinforce our continued development of ris-rez to improve standard of care in areas of high unmet need,” GSK’s Global Head Oncology, Hesham Abdullah M.D., said in the release.
GSK holds the rights from Hansoh to develop both ris-rez and a B7-H4-directed ADC dubbed mo-rez outside Greater China. The British pharma is running its own studies of ris-rez in various cancers, including a phase 3 study in extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer that is expected to read out in 2027 and a separate late-stage study in genitourinary cancer that is due to kick off later this year.
Back in April, GSK unveiled “extremely exciting” phase 1 data in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer for the other ADC, mo-rez. The company said at the time that it believed this readout was validation enough to set out plans to launch five late-stage trials of the ADC over the following months.
During that announcement, Abdullah described both ris-rez and mo-rez as “priority assets” for GSK. The oncology chief began building hype for both therapies as far back as October 2025, when he told Fierce to “stay tuned” for the Big Pharma to begin generating its own data for the assets.