Pharmaceutical Executive Daily: Foghorn Therapeutics & Eli Lilly Discontinue Development of FHD-909

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In today's Pharmaceutical Executive Daily, Foghorn Therapeutics and Eli Lilly discontinue development of FHD-909, their oral SMARCA2 degrader for cancer, after Phase I data show insufficient antitumor activity, a pharma dealmaking roundup covers Novartis's licensing deal worth up to $7.8 billion for Abogen Biosciences' mRNA-encoded T-cell engager and a new clinical collaboration pairing AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's Datroway with Summit Therapeutics' ivonescimab in triple-negative breast cancer, and Corxel's Bo Liang argues that oral delivery will decide the next phase of the GLP-1 market.

Foghorn Therapeutics and Eli Lilly have discontinued development of FHD-909, a first-in-class oral SMARCA2 degrader advanced under the companies' 2021 collaboration, after Phase I dose-escalation data show insufficient antitumor activity despite acceptable tolerability and selective target engagement. Foghorn chief executive officer Adrian Gottschalk says the SMARCA2/4 synthetic lethality relationship has not translated into the efficacy needed to advance the program, and the company is cutting 40% of its workforce as it redirects resources toward four proprietary pipeline programs.

Two drug-development deals headline today's dealmaking roundup, each pairing an established pharma company with earlier-stage or complementary science. Novartis has entered an exclusive worldwide licensing and option agreement with Abogen Biosciences for Abo2203, an mRNA-encoded CD19xCD3 T-cell engager designed to reset B-cell populations in autoimmune disease, paying $575 million upfront with up to $7.2 billion in additional milestones and royalties. Separately, AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, and Summit Therapeutics launch a Phase III clinical collaboration combining Datroway (datopotamab deruxtecan) with Summit's bispecific antibody ivonescimab in first-line triple-negative breast cancer, with plans to expand into additional tumor types including lung cancers.

Finally, Corxel chief medical officer Bo Liang makes the case that oral delivery will determine the next phase of competition in the GLP-1 market, as obesity treatment increasingly behaves like a consumer category where patients favor convenience over injectables. Liang, who previously led global clinical development for Novo Nordisk's semaglutide, contends that convenience and adherence — what he calls the second-largest unmet need in obesity care — will separate long-term winners from early movers, with two oral GLP-1 products already on the market and seeing strong uptake.

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