Akeso Launches Global Phase III Trial of Cadonilimab for Gastric Cancer

The trial represents a significant shift in clinical testing, moving from regional data to a multicenter head-to-head comparison against current international standards. Led by an international team including Dr. Yelena Y. Janjigian of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the study seeks to address a primary challenge in oncology: improving survival rates for patients with low PD-L1 expression, a group that often sees limited benefit from current PD-1 inhibitor therapies.

This development follows the positive results of the COMPASSION-15 study, which demonstrated that cadonilimab significantly reduced the risk of death in Chinese cohorts regardless of PD-L1 status. By expanding this investigation to a global scale, researchers intend to confirm whether this dual-targeting mechanism can provide a broader therapeutic option for the biologically heterogeneous landscape of advanced gastric cancer. Beyond this trial, Akeso is simultaneously exploring the drug's potential in perioperative settings in the United States, marking a comprehensive effort to integrate the bispecific antibody into multiple stages of cancer care.