HONG KONG – South Korean biotech company Qurient Co. Ltd. has inked a joint venture (JV) foundation deal involving German companies Max Planck Society (MPG), of Munich, and Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC) in Dortmund, as well as the 1988 Nobel laureate and biochemist Robert Huber.
While the general markets are leaning toward positive territory following a quiet summer period, the enthusiasm for biopharma equities remains muted. One of the most closely monitored therapeutic areas is oncology. Earlier this year, public companies developing innovative medicines in that area had enjoyed strong support; however, investors now appear to be more selective in backing companies in that sector.
HONG KONG – South Korea's biopharmaceutical venture Genome & Co. Ltd. recently secured KRW30.2 billion (US$25.2 million) in series C investment with an IPO and global clinical trial plans for next year.
While the general markets are leaning toward positive territory following a quiet summer period, the enthusiasm for biopharma equities remains muted. One of the most closely monitored therapeutic areas is oncology. Earlier this year, public companies developing innovative medicines in that area had enjoyed strong support; however, investors now appear to be more selective in backing companies in that sector.
The pipeline shift made public Thursday by Syros Pharmaceuticals Inc. may have been presaged by analysts, who in August sounded lukewarm about the Cambridge, Mass.-based firm's prospects as they stood then.
Prostate cancer affects roughly 1 in 9 American men in their lifetime, with 174,650 new cases reported each year. However, current prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests lack specificity, leading to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of inconsequential cancers. Cleveland Diagnostics Inc. is looking to change that with its IsoPSA assay, which just received a breakthrough device designation from the U.S. FDA. In clinical studies, the noninvasive, blood-based test has been shown to have higher accuracy than standard PSA tests.
HONG KONG – Insilico Medicine Hong Kong Ltd. has inked a two-program drug discovery collaboration agreement with Jiangsu Chia Tai Fenghai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (CTFH), of Jiangsu, China. The deal will focus on drug discovery and development for previously undruggable oncology targets through Insilico's artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled platform.
Foundation Medicine Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., has had a busy fall, and it is showing no signs of letting up. For example, in the next 12 to 18 months, the company has high hopes for its Foundationone Liquid test, David Fabrizio, VP, product development, told BioWorld MedTech during a visit to its headquarters last month as the Medtech Conference wrapped up in Boston. "This is one that we are actively engaged in with FDA and planning to submit and hopefully get approval and launch mid-next year," he added.
There's a yin and yang to neoantigens, Alberto Bardelli told the audience at the 2019 annual conference of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Barcelona, Spain, last month. They contribute to tumorigenesis, resistance and tumor heterogeneity. But they are also often specific to tumor cells but not normal cells and "some," he said, "are actionable targets."
HONG KONG – In vitro diagnostic company Cube Bio Co. Ltd., of Seoul, South Korea, has inked an agreement worth KRW3 trillion (US$2.5 billion) with Moscow-based Standart-Biotest LLC to export its cancer self-diagnostic kits for five years to Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
