The American Society of Hematology meeting next month will feature early data on trispecific antibodies for multiple myeloma, medicines that bind three targets instead of the two targeted by the bispecifics Johnson and Johnson, AbbVie, Pfizer and Amgen have brought to market over the past decade. Abstracts published on Wednesday show four programmes with high early response rates.
Johnson and Johnson’s ramantamig binds CD3 on immune cells and BCMA and GPRC5D on myeloma cells, the same two tumour targets as its approved bispecifics Tecvayli and Talvey. In a mid stage trial testing ramantamig alongside Darzalex and Revlimid as induction treatment in newly diagnosed, transplant eligible patients, all 20 patients evaluable after three cycles had minimal residual disease negativity, meaning no detectable diseased cells. RBC Capital Markets analysts called the abstract strong early data in a Thursday client note.
AbbVie’s ABBV-2001, licensed from Ichnos Glenmark, binds CD3, BCMA and CD38. In Phase 1 testing in relapsed or refractory disease it produced responses in 75 percent to 85 percent of enrollees, and 83 percent to 88 percent of patients who achieved a complete response also achieved minimal residual disease negative status.
The other two programmes are Chinese. Innovent Biologics’ IBI3003 targets the same receptors as ramantamig and produced a 77 percent response rate at the dose selected for Phase 2 in late stage disease. Shanghai Xianxiang’s SIM0500 achieved an overall response rate as high as 86 percent at the highest doses tested. A Californian startup, Kali Therapeutics, will also present preclinical trispecific research.
These are small, early datasets without randomised comparisons, and response rates across different trials and patient populations are not directly comparable. What the abstracts establish is breadth: at least four sponsors now have trispecifics producing responses in humans, which makes the December presentations a competitive read on durability and safety rather than on whether the format works at all.