Apollomics has tagged out of its partnership with TYG Oncology, terminating an immuno-oncology pact as part of a push to cut costs and keep going into 2026.
TYG had originally granted Apollomics regional rights to the cancer vaccine TYG100, also called APL-810, back in 2021. At the time, Apollomics CEO Guo-Liang Yu, Ph.D., said the drug candidate “represents the new era of active checkpoint control immunotherapy by enabling a rapid and appropriate natural immune response.” Yet, having fallen on hard times, the biotech has cut the candidate loose.
Apollomics in fact notified TYG of its decision last November but only publicized the action in its fourth-quarter results after the market closed Thursday, April 3. Through the notification, the biotech terminated a license agreement that would have become effective in January.
The termination forms part of the reevaluation of priorities at the cash-strapped biotech that played out across last year. Apollomics began 2024 by prioritizing development of vebreltinib and uproleselan to cut costs. The company got its ax out again in July, narrowing the focus of vebreltinib development, making other pipeline cuts and laying off staff. Apollomics ended last year with just 13 full-time employees.
The vebreltinib development plan Apollomics unveiled in July has already run into problems. Apollomics narrowed its focus to non-small cell lung cancer patients with MET amplification, as confirmed by central FISH testing. Over the next nine months, the biotech enrolled six patients who met the new criteria.
Two of the five patients who were evaluable in February had responded to therapy. But the glacial pace of enrollment led Apollomics to conclude the reliance on FISH, which is not part of the standard genetic testing done in the patient population, will limit both recruitment and the commercial opportunity. The biotech is evaluating alternatives for development of the c-MET inhibitor vebreltinib in the indication.
Apollomics sold the rights to vebreltinib in most of Asia to Taiwan’s LaunXP Biomedical for $10 million upfront early this week. The upfront fee will more than double Apollomics’ cash, which stood at $9.8 million at the end of last year, and extend its cash runway into the first quarter of 2026. LaunXP will study vebreltinib in combination with an EGFR inhibitor.