Ose Immunotherapeutics is prioritizing its lung cancer med Tedopi and shifting the strategy for its ulcerative colitis (UC) therapy lusvertikimab as the French biotech maps out a financially sustainable path forward.
In October, the biopharma warned that the 25.4 million euros ($29.5 million) it ended the second half of the year with could run dry in the fourth quarter of 2026. “In the absence of additional short-term funding, the company is not able to finance all of its activities on a 12-month horizon,” Ose pointed out at the time.
To address this looming financial cliff-face, this morning Ose unveiled a three-year strategy that focuses squarely on two of Ose’s most advanced assets. One of these is Tedopi, an “off-the-shelf” neo-epitope-based vaccine that the company has previously touted as having “pipeline in a product” potential.
Ose read out phase 2 data earlier this year linking Tedopi to a 12-month overall survival rate of 65% among patients with advanced or metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The company has been running five clinical trials of Tedopi in various oncology indications, including a phase 3 study in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), while phase 2 readouts in NSCLC and ovarian cancer had both been expected next year.
Today, Ose name-checked the phase 3 NSCLC study as one of four “value-creating opportunities” the company has identified. The late-stage study will “require limited additional financial resources from OSE and ongoing investigator-led phase 2 studies could also add additional proof-of-concept data at minimal cost,” the company noted.
The other asset at the center of Ose’s new priorities is lusvertikimab, an IL-7 antibody that is being investigated in both intravenous and subcutaneous formulations. While Ose said that “great” phase 2 data had been generated for intravenous lusvertikimab as a treatment for UC, the company noted this morning that the “overall UC market is almost entirely focused on more convenient oral and subcutaneous formulations.”
“OSE has therefore decided to pivot the UC indication to a subcutaneous formulation of lusvertikimab and aims to partner this asset once bioequivalence data have been generated,” the biopharma explained.
Work on intravenous lusvertikimab will now be focused on targeting “one or two new rare or specialty diseases with high unmet medical needs.”
“These clinical developments will require more modest financial investment than further development in UC and will expand the asset’s potential to treat multiple immune-mediated conditions, with a faster route to market,” explained Ose. “Indications and clinical development plans are being refined and will be disclosed in early 2026.”
The future of the rest of Ose’s pipeline is less clear, with the company stating that “beyond these priorities, other proprietary assets will advance in preclinical development at limited cost to maximize partnership opportunities.”
This portfolio includes the anti-PD1 monoclonal antibody OSE-279, which was undergoing a phase 1/2 study in solid tumors, as well as the CD28 antagonist pegrizeprument.
There’s also the Boehringer Ingelheim-partnered SIRPa antagonist BI 770371 that is being developed for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis. A potential 17.5 million euro ($20.4 million) milestone payment from Boehringer “would significantly reduce financing needs” if it arrives, Ose pointed out.
Then there’s the AbbVie-partnered chronic inflammation drug ABBV-230. Only yesterday, AbbVie handed back phase 1 development duties for ABBV-230 to AbbVie, with Ose noting that taking the drug into the clinic would be “contingent upon securing adequate funding.”
Ose CEO Marc Le Bozec said the strategy outlined this morning “positions OSE for success by concentrating resources where they can create the most value for all our stakeholders over the next three years.”
“It’s ambitious yet realistic for a company our size,” Le Bozec continued.
“We’ve reached an inflection point where we focus on programs with the greatest potential for near-term catalysts and return, while preparing to partner assets that require larger scale once they are phase 3-ready,” the CEO added. “Our plan strikes the right balance between clinical risk and financial opportunity, prioritizing late-stage assets and keeping our research engine strong.”