Category: 3. Business

Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) plus atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and bevacizumab (Avastin) prolonged investigator-assessed TACE-progression-free survival (TACE-PFS) vs TACE alone, according to data from the phase 3 TALENTACE trial (NCT04712643) presented during the 2025 ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress.¹

The median investigator-assessed TACE-PFS with TACE plus atezolizumab and bevacizumab (n = 171) was 11.30 months (95% CI, 7.52-15.01) vs 7.03 months (95% CI, 5.32-8.41) with TACE alone (n = 171), meeting the primary end point (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.55-0.92; P = .009). In the TACE plus atezolizumab/bevacizumab arm, the 12- and 24-month TACE-PFS rates 48.46% and 37.98%, respectively; in the TACE-alone arm, these respective rates were 33.60% and 29.85%.

The median PFS by investigator assessment and RECIST 1.1 criteria with TACE plus atezolizumab and bevacizumab was 10.32 months (95% CI, 8.51-11.93) vs 6.37 months (95% CI, 5.32-7.46) with TACE alone (HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.50-0.82). The 12- and 18-month PFS rates in the TACE plus atezolizumab/bevacizumab arm were 41.96% and 31.66%, respectively; in the TACE-alone arm, these rates were 26.73% and 20.60%, respectively.

“TALENTACE is the first phase 3 study to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of on-demand TACE combined with atezolizumab and bevacizumab, suggesting a new and effective treatment option for patients with systemically untreated, intermediate-to-high tumor burden unresectable HCC,” Guohong Han, MD, of the Department of Gastroenterology, Xi’an International Medical Center Hospital, in Xi’an, China, said in late-breaking presentation.

Taking a Look at TALENTACE

The prospective, open-label, multicenter, phase 3 study enrolled patients with confirmed unresectable HCC who were candidates to receive TACE, including those with BCLC-A, BCLC-B, and BCLC-C for Vp1/2, and BCLC-C for an ECOG performance status of 1. Their sum of tumor maximum diameter plus tumor number needed to be at least 6, they needed to have an ECOG performance status of 0 or 1, and Child-Pugh A disease without extrahepatic spread. They could not have previously received systemic therapy or locoregional therapy to the target lesions.

Patients (n = 342) were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive on-demand TACE followed by 1200 mg of atezolizumab and 15 mg/kg of bevacizumab every 3 weeks or underwent observation in the control arm. Stratification factors included baseline alpha-fetoprotein (<400 ng/mL vs ≥400 ng/mL), prior locoregional therapy except curative resection and ablation (yes, TACE vs yes, other locoregional therapy vs no), baseline Vp1/2 (yes vs no), and geographic region (China vs Japan).

The primary end points of the trial were investigator-assessed TACE-PFS and overall survival (OS). Secondary end points were investigator-assessed PFS by RECIST v1.1 criteria, time to untreatable progression, time to progression, extrahepatic spread per Response Evaluation Criteria in Cancer of the Liver (RECICL), objective response rate (ORR), duration of response per RECICL and RECIST v1.1 criteria.

TACE-PFS was defined as the time from randomization to untreatable progression or TACE failure/refractoriness or death by any cause. For the statistical testing hierarchy, hypotheses will be formally tested on the primary end points of TACE-PFS and OS. Han clarified that TACE-PFS and OS will be tested sequentially, with the overall type I error controlled at a 2-sided significance level of 0.05.

Looking at the Analysis

A total of 342 patients were randomized; 171 were assigned to receive TACE plus atezolizumab and bevacizumab and 171 were assigned to receive TACE alone. In the TACE/atezolizumab/bevacizumab arm, 166 patients received all three components, 4 received only TACE, and 1 did not receive any treatment; 73 patients discontinued the study. A total of 171 patients comprised the intention-to-treat (ITT) population and 166 comprised the safety set. In the TACE-alone arm, 169 received TACE alone and 2 did not receive any treatment; 81 discontinued the study. A total of 171 patients comprised the ITT population and 173 comprised the safety set.

The median time from randomization to the data cutoff for the first interim analysis was approximately 26 months, and the minimum follow-up was 18.4 months.

The median patient age was 62 years (range, 30-89) in the TACE/atezolizumab/bevacizumab arm vs 60.0 years (range, 21-90) in the TACE-alone arm. Most patients were male (TACE/atezolizumab/bevacizumab, 79.5%; TACE-alone, 81.9%), had an ECOG performance 0 (81.8%; 87.1%), were from China (91.2%; 88.9%), had BCLC-B disease (58.5%; 61.4%), and had Child-Pugh score of 5 (81.3%; 78.4%).

Additional Efficacy Data

OS data were immature at the time of the analysis, with only 38.6% of events reported. The median OS was 34.53 months (95% CI, 26.78-not evaluable [NE]) with TACE plus atezolizumab and bevacizumab vs 35.38 months (95% CI, 29.50-NE) with TACE alone (HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.68-1.34; 2-sided P = .793). The 12- and 18-month OS rates in the TACE plus atezolizumab and bevacizumab arm were 87.95% and 78.13%, respectively; in the TACE-alone arm, these rates were 84.30% and 73.92%, respectively.

The ORR per RECICL with TACE plus atezolizumab and bevacizumab was 81.3%, which comprised a complete response (CR) rate of 39.2% and a partial response (PR) rate of 42.1% with stable disease (SD) and progressive disease (PD) rates of 11.7% and 3.5%, respectively; in the TACE arm, the ORR per RECICL was 66.7%, which comprised a CR rate of 28.1% and PR rate of 38.6%; SD and PD rates were 12.9% and 14.0%, respectively. ORR by RECIST v1.1 criteria with TACE plus atezolizumab and bevacizumab was 49.1%, which included a CR rate of 3.5% and a PR rate of 45.6%; SD and PD rates were 35.1% and 11.7%, respectively. ORR by RECIST v1.1 criteria with TACE alone was 33.9%, which comprised a CR rate of 4.1% and a PR rate of 29.8%; the SD rate was 34.5% and a PD rate was 24.0%.

Safety Spotlight

“On-demand TACE combined with atezolizumab and bevacizumab showed a safety profile consistent with the well-established profiles of the individual agents and the underlying disease,” Han said.

All patients in the TACE plus atezolizumab and bevacizumab arm (n = 166) experienced at least 1 AE vs 99.4% of those in the TACE-alone arm (n = 173), with 100% and 97.7% of AEs related to treatment. Treatment-related grade 3 or 4 AEs occurred in 60.8% of those in the TACE combination arm vs 40.5% of those in the TACE-alone arm; 41.6% vs 40.5% were related to TACE, 27.7% were related to atezolizumab, and 38.6% were related to bevacizumab. Grade 5 AEs occurred in 4.2% of those in the TACE combination arm vs 2.9% of those in the TACE-alone arm; 3.0% vs 1.7% were related to treatment. Serious AEs occurred in 40.4% and 23.7% of those in the TACE combination and alone arms, respectively; they were related to treatment for 25.9% and 13.9% of cases, respectively.

In the TACE combination arm, 21.1% experienced AEs that led to withdrawal from any study treatment and 58.4% experienced AEs leading to any interruption of study treatment or TACE delay; in the TACE-alone arm, these respective percentages were 2.3% and 2.3%.

The most common treatment-related AEs were proteinuria, post-embolization syndrome, increased aspartate aminotransferase, decreased platelet count, hypoalbuminemia, hypertension, increased alanine aminotransferase, abdominal pain, pyrexia, and increased blood bilirubin.

“No new safety signals were identified,” Han said. “The safety profile of on-demand TACE combined with atezolizumab plus bevacizumab was generally manageable.”

Disclosures: Han disclosed receiving research grants from Shanghai Roche Pharmaceuticals, Co. Ltd; Bayer; Sirtex; Boston Scientific; and MSD. Lecture fees were received from Roche, Bayer, Gore, MSD, AstraZeneca, Sirtex, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boston Scientific, and Eisai. He does advisory consulting for Roche, Bayer, AstraZeneca, Boston Scientific, Gore, and MSD. The TALENTACE study is sponsored by Shanghai Roche Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Reference

Dong J, Han G, Ogasawara S, et al. TALENTACE: A phase III, open-label, randomized study of on-demand TACE combined with atezolizumab + bevacizumab (atezo+bev) or on-demand TACE alone in patients with systemically untreated intermediate-to-high tumor burden unresectable HCC. Presented at: 2025 ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress; July 2-5, 2025; Barcelona, Spain. Abstract LBA2.

Sarah Skidd

Sophie Warner

Kashish Barot

(Bloomberg) — Asian equities were set to climb Friday following fresh highs for US stocks as strong jobs data eased concerns the economy slowing down.

Equity index futures for Japan and Australia rose, while those for Hong Kong were fractionally lower. The S&P 500 gained 0.8% and the Nasdaq 100 advanced 1% Thursday, leaving each index at the highest closing level on record in a shortened session ahead of Friday’s Independence Day holiday. Contracts for US stocks were little changed in early Asian trading.

US markets closed prior to the House passing President Donald Trump’s tax bill that includes some $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that had weeks earlier sparked concerns over rising deficits.

Treasuries fell and the dollar rose in a sign traders see less pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates after US job growth exceeded expectations in June. Swap traders saw almost no chance of a July Fed cut, compared with a roughly 25% probability seen before the data. The chance of a move in September ebbed to about 70%.

“The solid June jobs report confirms that the labor market remains resolute and slams the door shut on a July rate cut,” said Jeff Schulze at ClearBridge Investments. “A wage-price inflationary spiral shouldn’t be a near-term concern, setting up something resembling a ‘Goldilocks’ scenario.”

Meanwhile, traders remain on alert after Trump said his administration may begin sending out letters to trading partners as soon as Friday setting unilateral tariff rates ahead of a July 9 deadline for negotiations.

Asked Thursday if more deals were on the way, Trump responded that “we have a couple of other deals, but you know, my inclination is to send a letter out and say what tariffs they are going to be paying.”

In Asia, Hong Kong’s de-facto central bank bought the city’s dollar again to defend its foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong dollar has had a wild ride recently with two previous rounds of intervention failing to send funding costs high enough to dampen bearish currency bets. 

Elsewhere, data set for release in the region included inflation for the Philippines, household spending for Australia and retail sales in Singapore.

Rate Outlook

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday questioned Fed officials’ judgment on rates, reiterating his view that two-year yields are a signal their benchmark rate is too high.

“The committee seems to be a little off here in their judgment,” Bessent said in an interview on Fox Business, referring to the Fed’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

Headline numbers from the June jobs report took pressure off the Fed to consider a rate cut later this month, but the solid figures masked weakness in private payrolls and other potential warning signs of deterioration in the labor market. That’s a trend that could raise the stakes later in the year.

“While today’s report points to still firm job creation, we don’t think the underlying details of the report are as supportive as suggested by the top-line beat,” said Oscar Munoz and Gennadiy Goldberg at TD Securities. “The story of a low-fire, low-hire labor market continues to hold for now.”

In commodities, gold fell Thursday while oil prices also retreated as media reports indicated OPEC+ has begun discussing another production increase.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 7:13 a.m. Tokyo time
• Hang Seng futures fell 0.3%
• S&P/ASX 200 futures rose 0.3%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
• The euro was little changed at $1.1754
• The Japanese yen was little changed at 144.96 per dollar
• The offshore yuan was little changed at 7.1692 per dollar
• The Australian dollar was little changed at $0.6570

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin fell 0.2% to $109,765.51
• Ether fell 0.2% to $2,596.35

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.1% to $67.07 a barrel
• Spot gold was little changed

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P.

At Meta, ensuring the safety of young people is a top priority and we’ve spent over a decade building our products for teens with this in mind. Across the industry, there is growing recognition that teens deserve consistent protection across all the different digital platforms they use. That’s why we support proposals to establish a common Digital Majority Age across EU member states, whereby parents need to approve their younger teens’ access to digital services, including social media. 

We believe this can be an effective solution to the industry-wide challenge of ensuring teens have safe, age-appropriate experiences online, if it is grounded in three key principles:

Guiding principles for an EU-Wide Digital Majority Age

1. Parental Approval of App Downloads by Younger Teens
   Parents want to be involved in their teen’s online lives: Recent polling by Morning Consult found that three-quarters of EU parents support parental approval for app downloads for teens under 16. We agree that parents know their teens best, and they should be the ones who have final say over what online services they are comfortable with their teens using. Regulation should empower this, underpinning their ability to make decisions for their family. There’s growing support for this approach in and outside of Europe. 
2. Consistency Across Industry
   Any new provisions should apply broadly across the digital services teens use — not just to social media platforms. Teens engage with a variety of apps – at least 40 apps per week on average, including gaming, streaming, messaging, and browsing. Focusing only on social media would miss the full picture and could push teens toward unregulated and less safe digital spaces.
3. Address Age Verification
   For a Digital Majority Age to work, robust age verification mechanisms are critical. We have and continue to be supportive of solutions that reduce the burden on parents: They should be easy-to-use, privacy-preserving and work consistently across industry. That’s why we have been supportive of an EU-wide solution at the app store or operating system level. However, what is most important is that this is a simple, privacy-protective mechanism that offers a consistent experience to parents across the EU.

To be clear, our support for an EU-wide Digital Majority Age is not an endorsement of government mandated social media bans. Bans take away parental authority, focus narrowly on one type of online service among the nearly two million apps available to teens, and overlook how teens use social media to connect with the world around them, grow and learn. Bans also fail to acknowledge the differences that exist between different services and varying levels of protections they offer. 

Safety and Support for Teens

Meta takes youth safety incredibly seriously and we recently launched Teen Accounts to better support parents, and bring them peace of mind that their teens can use social media to connect with their friends and explore their interests with the right protections in place.

Teen Accounts have built-in protections which limit who can contact a teen and the content they see. They set time reminders prompting teens to take breaks from our apps and turn off notifications at night to support a good night’s sleep. Millions of teens in Europe are automatically placed into Teen Accounts, and teens under 16 need a parent’s permission to change any of these settings to be less strict. And with supervision parents can set individual time limits, e.g. no Instagram during dinner or school hours. 

Teens will continue to use digital services to socialize, be creative and explore who they are. Parents want to feel confident that their teens can use social media safely, and deserve tools to guide those experiences, not bans that bypass their input. A thoughtful, EU-wide Digital Majority Age — grounded in parental approval, strong age verification, and consistency across industry — can help achieve that.

Hong Kong’s de-facto central bank bought the city’s dollar again to defend its foreign-exchange peg, as two previous rounds of intervention failed to send funding costs high enough to dampen bearish currency bets.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority bought HK$29.6 billion ($3.8 billion) of the currency in New York trading Thursday, a move which drains liquidity from the financial system and can increase borrowing costs. The amount was higher than the HK$20 billion it purchased earlier this week and more than triple the HK$9.4 billion it purchased last week.

Jul 3, 2025

– U.S. Space Force award for development and production of two satellites with options for two more, to deliver resilient space-based nuclear, command, control, and communications (NC3) for the President of the United States and joint strategic forces worldwide

ISLAMABAD – Biometric verification is becoming important for online transactions in Pakistan with rising concerns over identity theft, fraud, and misuse of government aid. Pakistanis using mobile wallet services need to make this from now onwards.

State Bank of Pakistan rolled out new mechanism towards enhancing security of digital financial services, and all cash transactions must be conducted through mobile wallet platforms like Easypaisa and JazzCash. The new rule came into effect on July 1, 2025.

EasyPaisa and JazzCash users will need to verify their identity via biometric authentication when making cash deposits or withdrawals at retail outlets across Pakistan to prevent fraud, strengthen user protection, and ensure that all transactions are safely and accurately processed.

The news sparked concerns among users as authorities clarified that no user accounts will be blocked and all funds remain secure. The biometric requirement solely applies to physical cash transactions conducted through authorized agents and has no impact on existing accounts or balances.

Easypaisa and JazzCash agents are already in place to assist customers with their transactions. Any deposit or withdrawal made without biometric verification will not be processed under new rules.

Biometric rule is said to introduce secure digital banking in Pakistan as Biometric verification not only adds an extra layer of security but also builds greater trust among users. The move could further accelerate Pakistan’s transition toward a more secure and cashless economy, especially as mobile wallet adoption continues to rise across urban and rural areas.

With over 50 million active mobile wallet users in Pakistan, the implementation of biometric verification marks a significant milestone in the country’s digital financial landscape.