In this episode of The Onco'Zine Brief, Peter Hofland talks with Thorsten Sperber, Global Head Medical Affairs at Immunomedics. Hofland and Sperber talk about sacituzumab govitecan, a novel antibody-drug conjugate. At the time of the interview, the drug was not yet approved, but in the weeks following the interview, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy™) for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) who have received at least two prior therapies for patients with relapsed or refractory metastatic disease.

Sacituzumab govitecan, previously known as IMMU-132, is Immunomedics’ lead product and the most advanced program in the company’s unique antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform. The drug binds the humanized anti-trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 (Trop-2) monoclonal antibody (mAb) hRS7 IgG1κ through the cleavable CL2A linker to the anti-cancer drug SN-38 to kill cancer cells. Trop-2 is expressed in more than 85% of all cancers, including breast cancer and TNBC.

With the FDA’s decision, sacituzumab govitecan is the eight approved and available ADCs reaching the market, making these targeted drugs a powerful class of therapeutic agents in oncology and hematology.