Cevostamab Updates

So, Sevastomab is a bi-specific antibody that targets a novel target in myeloma called FCRH5. FCRH5 is a protein that sits on the surface of plasma cells. Now, it's important to recognize that this protein is present on both normal and cancerous plasma cells. So, it's plasma cell specific, not necessarily myeloma specific. It is also expressed on certain types of mature B cells. So, there is some on-target, off-cancer side effects that are related to this, much like the BCMA-directed therapies as well. What's attractive about this is because it's a different target. It's potentially something that could be used for patients who have relapsed after a BCMA-directed, bi-specific antibody or CAR T cell therapy, much like Talvi or Talketomab, which targets GPRC5D on myeloma cells, is currently being used. The results with Sevastomab in early days look really great. Heavily pretreated patients, you're looking at 55% of patients or so responding to treatment. Most of those who respond to treatment have at least a 90% knockdown in disease burden. Many patients go into complete remission. One of the neat things about Sevastomab is the way that the studies thus far have been designed. It's a 17-cycle therapy, with each cycle being three weeks long. So, it's essentially a one-year treatment, and then you go off therapy. A lot of interest in potentially reducing the exposure to bi-specific antibodies in the long term to mitigate some of the risk of infection associated with these agents. So, kudos to the team developing Sevastomab in using a defined duration of therapy. So, I think it's a very attractive agent. It's still in clinical trials, but I think just like Talketomab got approved for patients with heavily pretreated disease, I definitely could see a pathway potentially forward for Sevastomab as well.