The latest episode of the DDW Highlights Podcast is now available to listen to below. DDW&#x27;s Bruno Quinney narrates five key stories of the previous week to keep DDW subscribers up-to-date on the latest industry news.<br>Last week, a cancer drug demonstrated it could reduce tumours by as much as 55%. Elsewhere, AI was a recurrent theme in both clinical trials and drug development.<br>You can listen below, or find The Drug Discovery World Podcast on Spotify, Google Play and Apple Podcasts.

DDW Highlights: 9 June 2026

The Drug Discovery World Podcast

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Drug Discovery World Podcast

## Participants

- **Bruno Quinney** (DDW Content Team)

## Transcript

Innovative, Evolving, Developing, Busy. These are just some of the words that come to mind when talking not just about the drug discovery sector, but also the lives of those working in and around it. I'm Bruno Quinney from the DDW Content Team, and each week I'll be picking out the top stories from the industry. This is the Highlights Podcast.

We start this week's episode with news that an experimental drug could reduce tumours by 55%.

GRWD 5769, developed by biotech company Greywolf Therapeutics, is a first-in-class oral small molecule inhibitor of endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase 1, or ERAP1, an enzyme that regulates tumour antigen presentation on MHC-I.

The drug works by altering how cancer cells appear to the immune system, preventing them from being concealed. In the Phase 1 EMIT-1 trial, GRWD 5769 was administered in combination with simiplumab, in patients with a median of two prior lines of therapy and documented secondary anti-PD-1 resistance.

Across all cohorts, GRWD 5769 enabled simiplumab to target cancer cells and destroy them. Data presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting showed cancer tumours were shrunk by a minimum 18%, with as much as 55% of tumours shrunk in non-small cell lung cancer.

The drug successfully enabled tumour shrinkages of 51% in colorectal cancer, 36% in urothelial carcinoma, and 38% in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Liver cell tumours were reduced by 32%, while cervical cancer patients reported 18% reductions in tumour size.

EMIT-1 has validated a mechanism that the field has long recognised as scientifically compelling but clinically unproven, said Peter Joyce, CEO and co-founder of Greywolf Therapeutics. We're now advancing into stage 2 cohort expansions to inform a randomised phase 2 study,

and we believe this data positions GRWD 5769 as a genuinely differentiated approach to two of the largest unmet needs in oncology, T-cell exhaustion and tumour visibility to the immune system.

Also in the news, obesity drugs could widen health inequalities, warn UK researchers. Without affordable healthy food and appropriate support, obesity drugs such as semaglutide and tizepatide could widen health inequalities,

say researchers at UCL and the University of Cambridge. In a correspondence published in Nature Medicine, the researchers argue that while incretin-based therapies have transformed obesity treatment, their long-term benefits may depend on factors beyond the medications themselves. Access to nutrition advice, healthy food and ongoing healthcare support

are all likely to shape whether patients can use the drug safely and maintain health improvements over time. Senior author Dr Adrian Brown from UCL Medicine said, We have highlighted that obesity treatment is not just a medical issue, but a social and structural one. Without i...

DDW Highlights: 9 June 2026

Transcript

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DDW Highlights: 9 June 2026

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.