Shares of Alx Oncology Holdings (NASDAQ:ALXO) jumped 12% in premarket trading Monday after the biotech reported encouraging Phase 2 results for its investigational therapy evorpacept.
In the study, evorpacept was paired with the standard rituximab and lenalidomide (R2) regimen in previously untreated patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (iNHL). The combination delivered complete responses in 92% of participants, far surpassing the roughly 50% historical complete response rate typically seen with R2 alone.
The trial, presented at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in Orlando, included 24 frontline iNHL patients. Every participant responded to therapy—92% achieved complete responses, while 8% recorded partial responses. The one-year progression-free survival rate reached 91%, and overall survival at one year was 100%.
Commenting on the findings, ALX Oncology CEO Jason Lettmann said, “We are excited to see the results of this Phase 2 study in frontline indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients, where the addition of evorpacept added a meaningful benefit over the historical data for the standard-of-care regimen of rituximab and lenalidomide.”
The company added that the combination was generally well tolerated. Researchers plan further evaluation of minimal residual disease clearance as longer-term follow-up becomes available.
The study was led by Dr. Paolo Strati, Associate Professor of Lymphoma-Myeloma at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who initiated the trial after seeing encouraging activity from the same therapeutic approach in relapsed and refractory settings.