Company: RCUS
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001724521-25-000040
Chunk: 18

Company: Arcus Biosciences, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 18
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 our ongoing clinical studies. Zimberelimab has been approved in China for classical Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, based on data generated independently by Guangzhou Gloria Biosciences, Co. ("Gloria Biosciences"), which owns the commercial rights to zimberelimab in China. To date, zimberelimab has been evaluated by us and Gloria Biosciences, either alone or in combination with other agents, in over 2,500 patients.

3

Adenosine Pathway Programs 

Under conditions of cellular damage or cell death, such as in response to certain chemotherapies, large amounts of adenosine triphosphate ("ATP") are released into the extracellular environment, where it is converted into adenosine monophosphate by the enzyme CD39 and then into adenosine by the enzyme CD73. The generation of large amounts of extracellular adenosine results in an immunosuppressive response that counteracts some of the potentially beneficial effects of chemotherapy. Two receptors important in mediating the effect of adenosine are A2a, which is expressed on T and NK cells, and A2b, which is co-expressed with A2a on myeloid cells. We currently have three clinical programs targeting the adenosine pathway.

CD73 Program

Quemliclustat is a small molecule inhibitor that targets the CD73 enzyme in the ATP-adenosine pathway. The CD73 enzyme plays a critical role in the last step in the conversion of extracellular ATP into adenosine. We believe targeting CD73 could be a highly effective approach to inhibiting adenosine-mediated immune suppression by suppressing adenosine generation. 

We believe quemliclustat was the first small-molecule CD73 inhibitor to enter clinical development. While there are several anti-CD73 antibodies in development, we believe that a small-molecule approach to CD73 inhibition could offer several advantages, including more complete inhibition of CD73 enzymatic activity, deeper tumor penetration, and potential for both intravenous and oral delivery.

In addition to the EDGE-Lung study described above, we are evaluating quemliclustat in the following studies:

•PRISM-1 is a Phase 3 study in metastatic pancreatic cancer evaluating quemliclustat with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel (the standard-of-care chemotherapies used for advanced pancreatic cancer) against gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel.

•ARC-8 is a Phase