ALX Oncology (ALXO) disclosed it will fund operations through the first half of 2028 using $153 million in cash on hand, while presenting data for two late-stage programs at the H.C. Wainwright 28th Annual Global Investment Conference on Monday.
Chief Executive Officer Jason Lettmann and Chief Financial Officer Harish Shantharam discussed the biotech’s financial position and pipeline progress. The company reported a current ratio of 9.71 and a market capitalization of $265 million. Its stock rose 72% year to date and 83% over the past year, trading at $1.92 with Wall Street price targets between $4 and $6.
Lettmann highlighted evorpacept, a CD47 blocker developed with a bifurcated design that blocks the “don’t eat me” signal while an Fc-active partner antibody triggers immune activation. The program has been dosed in more than 800 patients, showing a favorable safety profile.
In gastric cancer, the Phase II ASPEN-06 study demonstrated a 40 percentage point increase in objective response rate versus control in the CD47-high population, with responses lasting approximately 25 months and a progression-free survival hazard ratio of 0.39. Roche is developing a companion diagnostic using standard immunohistochemistry methods.
In HER2-positive breast cancer, evorpacept is being studied alongside Jazz’s zanidatamab. In a small cohort, five of five patients responded. A larger Phase II trial, ASPEN-09, will enroll 80 to 120 second-line or later patients in a single-arm design with biomarker stratification. Top-line data are expected mid-2027, with a target objective response rate of at least 30% and progression-free survival of roughly six months.
ALX2004, an EGFR-directed topoisomerase I inhibitor antibody-drug conjugate, began patient dosing about a year ago. Dose escalation moved from 1 mg/kg to beyond 4 mg/kg, with a target therapeutic window of 4–6 mg/kg. The first-in-human trial includes lung, head and neck, esophageal squamous, and colorectal cancers, enrolling late-line patients averaging three to four prior therapies.
Studies are running at U.S. academic centers including Moffitt and MD Anderson. ALX2004 uses the matuzumab epitope originally developed by Merck Serono and was benchmarked across 60 linker-payload combinations against ENHERTU.
Lettmann outlined key milestones: ALX2004 safety and dose-escalation data due in the second half of 2024, potential Phase III planning for evorpacept in late 2025, and ASPEN-09 readout in mid-2027.
