OBI Pharma has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for OBI-902, allowing the company to proceed with Phase 1/2 clinical trials in patients with advanced solid tumors. The announcement, made on May 1, 2025, marks a significant milestone for the Taiwan-based clinical-stage oncology company as it advances its novel TROP2-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) toward clinical development.
Novel ADC Technology Platform Shows Promise
OBI-902 is the first ADC developed using OBI Pharma's proprietary GlycOBI® technology platform. The drug carries a potent topoisomerase I inhibitor payload with a drug-antibody ratio (DAR) of 4 and targets TROP2, a protein highly expressed in various solid tumors including breast, ovarian, and gastric cancers.
"The impending OBI-902-001 clinical trial intends to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary efficacy of OBI-902 in patients with advanced solid tumors. We are very excited to begin dosing patients in our Phase 1/2 clinical study of OBI-902 later this year," said Dr. Heidi Wang, Chief Executive Officer of OBI Pharma.
Superior Preclinical Performance
At the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting held in Chicago from April 25-30, 2025, OBI Pharma presented compelling preclinical data for OBI-902. The company reported that the drug demonstrated superior and more durable antitumor activity compared to benchmark TROP2 ADCs across various animal models.
Dr. Ming-Tain Lai, Chief Scientific Officer at OBI Pharma, explained the technology's advantages: "Our data demonstrated that OBI-902, derived from a site-specific GlycOBI® platform, showed favorable PK and differentiated profiles with good ADC stability in circulation, and efficient payload release in the tumor site of tumor bearing mouse."
The preclinical studies showed that OBI-902 has enhanced linker-payload stability and favorable pharmacokinetic characteristics, suggesting potential clinical advantages over existing TROP2-targeting therapies.
Breakthrough ADC Technology Platforms
The GlycOBI® platform represents a significant advancement in ADC development. According to Dr. Lai, it consists of both EndoSymeOBI® enzyme and HYPrOBI™ linker technologies. The EndoSymeOBI® dual function enzyme enables precise glycan remodeling for site-specific conjugation through a "one-pot" process, while the HYPrOBI™ technology provides a masking effect to reduce payload hydrophobicity.
"The GlycOBI® platform represents a breakthrough in antibody-drug conjugate development as a distinct glycan site-specific technology, enabling a versatile drug-antibody ratio and dual payload conjugations," Dr. Lai noted. "Notably, this technology can achieve a drug-antibody ratio as high as 16, which is the highest DAR that can be achieved in site-specific glycan platforms."
OBI Pharma also presented data on its complementary ThiOBI® platform, which was developed utilizing an irreversible cysteine conjugation alongside the HYPrOBI™ technology. ADCs derived from the ThiOBI® platform demonstrated superior antitumor activity compared to traditional cysteine benchmark ADCs in preclinical studies.
Expanding ADC Pipeline
OBI-902 joins OBI-992, another TROP2-targeting ADC in the company's pipeline that entered clinical trials following FDA IND clearance in December 2023. While OBI-992 uses a unique hydrophilic, enzyme-cleavable linker, OBI-902 leverages the site-specific glycan ADC approach with the GlycOBI® platform.
The company's expanding ADC portfolio also includes OBI-904 targeting Nectin-4, as well as other monospecific, bi-specific, and dual payload ADCs in development.
Clinical Development Timeline
OBI Pharma plans to begin enrolling patients in the Phase 1/2 clinical study of OBI-902 in the second half of 2025. The study will evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary efficacy of OBI-902 in patients with advanced solid tumors.
The TROP2 targeting antibody used in OBI-902 was in-licensed from Biosion, Inc. in December 2021, with OBI holding exclusive rights worldwide except in China.
Additional Research Presentations
At the AACR meeting, OBI Pharma also presented data on several other pipeline candidates, including OBI-992, OBI-3424 (a novel AKR1C3 targeted prodrug), and research on Globo H's role in modulating immune responses in cholangiocarcinoma patients.
In collaboration with the National Cancer Institute's Pediatric Preclinical In Vivo Testing (PIVOT) Program, OBI-3424 was evaluated for its antitumor activity across pediatric hepatoblastoma PDX models, yielding promising results that were presented at the conference.
As OBI Pharma advances its novel ADC technologies and pipeline candidates toward clinical development, the company aims to address high unmet medical needs in oncology with its innovative approaches to targeted cancer therapy.
