Nuvation Bio Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

IBTROZI momentum strengthened: Second-quarter revenue reached $31.7 million, including $23.2 million in U.S. product revenue, up 25% sequentially.

About 85% of new patient starts were first-line, supporting longer treatment durations and potential future growth.

Safusidenib development is expanding: Updated Phase II data in IDH1-mutant glioma showed a 52% objective response rate and a 79% three-year progression-free survival rate.

Nuvation is adding Phase III and Phase II studies targeting earlier-stage disease and patients who progress after vorasidenib.

Balance sheet strengthened: Nuvation held $661 million in cash and marketable securities at June 30 and raised approximately $279.1 million in net proceeds through convertible notes.

Management said its capital should support operations through profitability and the anticipated safusidenib launch.

Nuvation Bio NYSE: NUVB reported second-quarter total revenue of $31.7 million, including $23.2 million in net U.S. product revenue from IBTROZI, as the company said use of the ROS1-targeted lung cancer therapy continued to shift toward first-line patients.

IBTROZI revenue increased 25% from the first quarter, while approximately 160 patients began treatment during the period, Chief Executive Officer David Hung said.

About 85% of those new starts were in the first-line setting, compared with roughly 30% at launch less than a year earlier.

The company said first-line starts rose about 30% sequentially.

Hung said Nuvation views revenue as the principal measure of IBTROZI’s commercial performance, but provided patient-start figures to illustrate changing launch dynamics.

The company said it has treated many of the available later-line, TKI-pretreated patients since the drug’s approval, while first-line patients are expected to remain on therapy longer.

“We expected first-line patients to become the main driver of long-term growth due to the much longer duration of treatment in the first-line setting, and we see this dynamic happening in real time,” Hung said.

Chief Commercial Officer Colleen Sjogren said IQVIA claims data from January through May showed IBTROZI was the most prescribed ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor, or TKI, across all treatment lines in 2026.

She added that physicians chose IBTROZI for more than half of newly treated first-line patients during that period.

The company cited data from its TRUST-I study in TKI-naive patients, where IBTROZI demonstrated a 90% objective response rate and median duration of response and progression-free survival of 50 months.

Hung also pointed to patient-reported outcomes from TRUST-II presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, where 88% of patients reported improved or stable global health and quality-of-life scores at the first assessment.

Nuvation said adverse-event-driven discontinuations have remained low, with discontinuations concentrated among later-line patients with more extensive disease and prior treatment exposure.

The company also said IBTROZI is the only brain-penetrant ROS1 TKI without central nervous system warnings in its label.

During the question-and-answer session, management discussed a newly approved competing ROS1 therapy from GSK, referred to on the call as zidesamtinib.

Hung said Nuvation was surprised by CNS warnings and other adverse events included in that therapy’s label, while Chief Financial Officer Philippe Sauvage characterized its pricing as consistent with a later-line treatment strategy.

Nuvation said the earlier-than-expected approval of the competing drug did not alter its commercial plan.

Sjogren said demand for IBTROZI has grown ac...