HK Stock Market Move | CSTONE PHARMA-B(02616) surged by more than 20%, CS2009 lung cancer efficacy data impressive, may initiate first phase III MRCT this year.

CSTONE PHARMA-B(02616) rose by over 20%, rising 19.42% to HK$8.24 as of the time of writing, with a turnover of HK$377 million. On the news front, Cornerstone Pharmaceuticals announced the latest clinical progress of their independently developed PD-1/VEGF/CTLA-4 triple-specific antibody CS2009. The preliminary efficacy data of CS2009 monotherapy for stage I/II lung cancer was positive. In first-line non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with a programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) tumor proportion score (TPS) of 50%, the objective response rate (ORR) was as high as 90% and the disease control rate (DCR) reached 100%. In second-line and later-line NSCLC patients who had received prior immunotherapy (IO) and tested negative for driver gene alterations (AGA), the ORR was 25%. Based on these results, Cornerstone Pharmaceuticals plans to initiate the first phase III global multicenter clinical trial (MRCT) of CS2009 by the end of 2026, focusing on indications such as NSCLC, colorectal cancer (CRC), and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). More data from the phase I and II clinical studies of CS2009 are expected to be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting and/or the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Annual Meeting in 2026.