HONG KONG – Rapt Therapeutics Inc., of San Francisco, and Seoul, South Korea-based Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. entered a license agreement for Rapt’s FLX-475 in Asia. FLX-475 is an oral, small-molecule CCR4 antagonist for cancer treatment.
DUBLIN – Imcheck Therapeutics SAS raised €48 million (US$53.2 million) in a series B financing round to move a pipeline of antibodies targeting gamma delta T cells into the clinic.
SINGAPORE – As the ESMO Asia Congress 2019 brought 3,679 participants from all over the Asia-Pacific region and beyond to Singapore’s Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre, the focus, unsurprisingly, was on developments and challenges relevant to the oncology community.
SINGAPORE – As the ESMO Asia Congress 2019 brought 3,679 participants from all over the Asia-Pacific region and beyond to Singapore’s Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre, the focus, unsurprisingly, was on developments and challenges relevant to the oncology community in the region.
Nanthealth Inc. has received U.S. FDA clearance for a whole exome sequencing test to determine overall tumor mutational burden (TMB) in cancer tissue. Known as Omics Core, the first-of-its-kind in vitro diagnostic test is available now as part of Nanthealth's GPS Cancer molecular profiling suite.
BEIJING – Chinese clinical-stage cancer drug developer Tot Biopharm International Co. Ltd. went public on Hong Kong's stock exchange under the stock code of 1875 on Friday, raising HK$511.4 million (US$61.3 million) by issuing shares at HK$6.55 apiece. But its debut met with an unexpected setback, with share prices down nearly 7% in mid-morning. Prior to the listing, the company said its shares were oversubscribed by around 11.95 times and it "was well received by the capital market."
Shares of Nextcure Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTC) have alternately been up sharply lately or down dramatically. Following the weekend release of updated positive clinical data from its NC-318 phase I/II study, the share price nosed down 52.9% Monday.
PERTH, Australia – Melbourne-based Cartherics Pty Ltd. plans on taking its pluripotent stem cell technology into the clinic next year. It is employing advanced gene editing techniques for the next generation of CAR T therapy.
LONDON – It used to be called junk DNA, but now Ervaxx Ltd. has shown the noncoding parts of the genome are a treasure trove of novel cancer antigens. Two years after spinning out of the Francis Crick Institute in London, the company has emerged with a $17.5 million series A funding and a fully formed platform for systematically discovering coding sequences for what it refers to as "dark antigens." (The name is trademarked.)
BEIJING – Antibody developer Akeso Biopharma Inc., from China's Guangdong province, closed a $150 million series D financing round to advance its pipeline, especially the two PD-1-based bispecific antibodies, AK-104 and AK-112, aimed to help it stand out in the fierce PD-1 space in China. "A significant portion of the proceeds will go to AK-104 and AK-112, which are both first-in-class drug candidates," Akeso CEO Michelle Xia told BioWorld. This year is a big one for Akeso, as AK-104 and AK-112 received IND approvals from the FDA in March and July, respectively.
