The 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is at the half-way point in Chicago, IL. This year appeared relatively light on major impact data, perhaps reflecting the maturation of immunotherapies, especially checkpoint inhibitors, which have amazingly grown from the early-stage clinic to a pillar of oncology care in just a few short years. Immunotherapies have shifted the efficacy baseline for so many tumor types, and it seems as if the uniform strategy of drug developers is to now study their drugs in combination with an immunotherapy.

Along with the unstoppable march of PD-1 giants Opdivo (nivolumab, BMY) and Keytruda (pembrolizumab, MRK) through new lines of therapy and tumor types, there were some newer PD-1 arrivals such as Tecentriq (atezolizumab, Roche) and durvalumab (AZN) featured at the meeting. The building anticipation over CAR-T therapies was also evident in several major sessions devoted to hematologic malignancies which would normally be featured at the December ASH meeting. Lastly, Darzalex (daratumumab, JNJ) was the featured non-immunotherapy with a major data presentation in the plenary session that will vault the drug into an earlier multiple myeloma setting.

This mid-meeting report is a compilation of our coverage through the first three days of the 2016 ASCO meeting and includes a list of the 135 weekend data events we have added into Biomedtracker to date along with commentary on key presentations by our analysts attending the meeting. Additional coverage through the rest of the meeting will be added to the database over the next few days and compiled in our post-meeting report.

Additionally, an Informa Pharma Webinar will take place on June 9. In conjunction with a Key Opinion Leader, several Informa analysts will discuss the major developments of the conference and key take-aways. For more information on the webinar and how to register, click here.


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