OnCo
drugsProductWithdrawn

Rovalpituzumab tesirine

Rovalpituzumab tesirine (Rova-T) was the first drug against DLL3 in small-cell lung cancer. AbbVie bought it for $5.8B and abandoned it after two failed phase 3 trials. The target later worked with a different weapon.

A DLL3-directed ADC with a PBD dimer payload (DAR ~2). Phase 2 TRINITY showed modest response rates with high toxicity (effusions, oedema, photosensitivity). Phase 3 TAHOE (second line vs topotecan) was stopped for shorter survival in the Rova-T arm; MERU (first-line maintenance) failed. AbbVie ended development in 2019 after the 2016 Stemcentrx acquisition. Tarlatamab, a DLL3×CD3 T-cell engager, later improved survival in the same setting (DeLLphi-304, 2025).

Lesson: target validation and modality are separable. DLL3 was the right address; a PBD payload with a narrow window in a frail population was the wrong weapon.

Loading structure…
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Linker-payload: tesirine (PBD dimer) · 2D coordinates (no PubChem conformer)
PubChem
How it works, step by step · animated schematic, not to scale
Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) →
Modality
ADC
Mechanism
Humanised anti-DLL3 with PBD dimer (SC-DR002) via cleavable linker.
Brand / code
Rova-T, SC16LD6.5
Payload
PBD dimer (SC-DR002)
Linker
Cleavable dipeptide

Trials

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ClinicalTrials.gov · phase 2/3
refreshed 2026-09-09
8 studies0 recruiting5 Phase 23 Phase 3
Search “Rovalpituzumab tesirine” on ClinicalTrials.gov →
Counts are from a name search and may include unrelated studies; up to 100 studies are summarised.

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Rovalpituzumab tesirine
intervention: Rovalpituzumab tesirine
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Latest papers

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Literature trend4 papers in the last 12 monthsHow this is computed
Latest papers · live from Europe PMC
Open in Europe PMC

Query for this drug: (TITLE:"Rovalpituzumab tesirine" OR ABSTRACT:"Rovalpituzumab tesirine" OR TITLE:"Rova-T" OR ABSTRACT:"Rova-T" OR TITLE:"SC16LD6.5" OR ABSTRACT:"SC16LD6.5") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Rovalpituzumab tesirine, not a curated reading list.

Connected

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Pages like this

not linked directly; found by shared links

cancers

1
Small-cell lung cancer

technologies

1
Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)

targets

1
DLL3

drugs

1
ApprovedBispecific T-cell engager (DLL3×CD3)
Tarlatamab · Imdelltra

companies

1
AbbVie (incl. ImmunoGen, Capstan)

ideas

1
Public post-mortem reports when a cancer drug programme is stopped

bottlenecks

1
Failures are hidden