Innovent Biologics, a global biopharmaceutical company, announced early results from the first human trial of IBI3003, a new treatment designed for multiple myeloma (a type of cancer). The drug targets three major areas involved in the disease. The trial results, presented at the 2025 ASH Annual Meeting, showed that IBI3003 was well-tolerated and had an in-control safety profile. Though the study was short-term, there were promising signs of effectiveness, especially in high-risk patients or those who had already experimented with other treatments.
IBI3003 is a trispecific antibody, meaning it targets three different markers on cancer cells. It’s built to tackle BCMA and GPRC5D, which are major to myeloma cells, to prevent the cancer from escaping treatment. Early studies showed that it worked better than some other treatments in animal models and showed strong tumor-killing effects in lab tests.
The company is currently testing IBI3003 in a larger Phase 1/2 clinical trial in China and Australia, focusing on its safety, tolerance, and effectiveness in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (who haven’t responded to other treatments).
The first part of the trial included patients who had already received at least two other treatments for their myeloma and hadn’t responded to them. The drug is given once a week, with the option to switch to every two weeks if the patient shows positive results. The study also included some steps to reduce the risk of side effects like cytokine release syndrome (CRS).
Executive Statement
According to Professor Peng Liu, Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, patients with R/R MM have a poor prognosis after failing standard treatments, including PI, IMiD, and anti-CD38 therapies, with an ORR of only 29.8%, a median progression-free survival of 4.6 months, and a median overall survival of 12.4 months. Therefore, there is an urgent unmet clinical need for these patients, particularly those with high-risk features such as EMD or prior anti-BCMA and/or anti-GPRC5D therapies.
