GSK, iTeos Drop Lung Cancer Drug After Ineffective Trial Results

British pharmaceutical company GSK and iTeos Therapeutics announced on Tuesday that they had halted the development of belrestotug, an experimental treatment for lung cancer, after two tests showed that it was ineffective in halting the disease's progression. The discontinued medication is part of a class of TIGIT receptor-focused therapies that have lost popularity recently due to a string of clinical failures  for brought on by their poor efficacy.

In recent months, clinical trials for similar medications produced by Merck, Roche, and BeiGene have failed because they were unable to reduce the course of the disease or increase overall patient survival. According to Barclays analyst Emily Field, investors are uninterested in the TIGIT class because "no one really cares" because it was already deemed "dead".

Belrestotug, which was being tested in combination with GSK's dostarlimab for treating advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), did not demonstrate sufficient efficacy, leading to the termination of the collaboration, the companies said.

"We are truly disappointed by the results," iTeos Chief Executive Officer Michel Detheux said. The ongoing late-stage lung cancer experiment will no longer accept additional patients, according to the company. According to the American Cancer Society, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) makes up approximately 87 percent of all occurrences of lung cancer in the United States.