Pyxis Oncology (PYXS) Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference 2026 summary

Program overview and mechanistic rationale

• Focus on developing a novel antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting the extracellular matrix in hard-to-treat cancers, especially head and neck cancer.

• Lead program, MICVO, has shown efficacy in multiple tumor types and is being advanced in head and neck cancer.

Clinical development and trial design

• Dose escalation and expansion studies identified 5.4 mg as an effective dose, with dose capping implemented to address safety in high body weight patients.

• Two trial arms: one for platinum plus PD-1 (current standard), and one for EGFR inhibitors plus PD-1 (emerging standard), each with about 20 patients.

• Mid-year update will present data from both arms, focusing on efficacy and safety across HPV status and prior therapies.

Efficacy and safety profile

• December data showed strong efficacy in both HPV positive and unrelated groups; aim to confirm equipotency in a larger dataset.

• Safety concerns, particularly grade 3 adverse events and discontinuations in high body weight patients, led to dose capping.

• Dose capping is expected to yield similar results to adjusted ideal body weight (AIBW) dosing, with AIBW as a backup.