Oricell Therapeutics Co. Ltd. has raised $120 million in a series B financing to support development of its cell therapy pipeline and technology platform, as well as the construction of a manufacturing plant. The round was jointly led by Qiming Venture Partners and Quan Capital Management LLC.
Shares of Poseida Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:PSTX) closed at $4.51, up $2.08, or 85%, as a result of the collaboration and licensing deal with Roche Holding AG that brings $110 million up front as well as the same amount in near-term milestone payments described by CEO Mark Gergen as “highly achievable,” and the arrangement could be worth as much as $6 billion if goals farther down the road are met.
As the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting nears, presenters are talking up their prospects, including Biomea Fusion Inc. with early data from experiments testing BMF-219, an oral, irreversible covalent menin inhibitor – one in an intriguing class that has sparked efforts by various developers.
As the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting nears, presenters are talking up their prospects, including Biomea Fusion Inc. with early data from experiments testing BMF-219, an oral, irreversible covalent menin inhibitor – one in an intriguing class that has sparked efforts by various developers.
Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. Inc. has become the second company to get a BCMA-targeting CAR T therapy to market with the approval of ciltacabtagene autoleucel for adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM) after four or more prior lines of therapy, including a proteasome inhibitor, an immunomodulatory agent and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody.
Oric Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s preclinical data at last December’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology didn’t please everyone but infused the CD73 drug space with more rationale for the target, and a number of other prospects continue to move through pipelines. Previous early stage findings also have suggested favorable knockdown of adenosine in comparison to Astrazeneca plc’s oleclumab and Arcus Biosciences Inc.’s small molecule, AB-680, also known as quemliclustat. Companies developing CD73 therapies also include Corvus Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Novartis AG.
In late February 2021, Oncopeptides AB scored a big win on the FDA’s accelerated approval for the first cancer peptide-drug conjugate, Pepaxto (melphalan flufenamide), in multiple myeloma. Less than eight months later, it was shutting down commercial operations and heading back to the drawing board after safety issues emerging in the confirmatory Ocean study prompted the Stockholm-based firm to pull Pepaxto from the market, just ahead of what was likely to be a negative FDA advisory panel vote.
Sana Biotechnology Inc. has acquired rights to two CAR T constructs through a pair of deals, one with partners Innovent Biologics Inc. and Iaso Biotherapeutics Co. Ltd. and a second with the U.S.-based National Cancer Institute (NCI). In the Innovent-Iaso deal, Sana secured nonexclusive commercial rights to a B-cell maturation antigen-targeted CAR T construct for in vivo gene therapy and ex vivo hypoimmune cell therapy applications. The NCI deal, for exclusive commercial rights to the NCI’s CD22 CAR asset, could help Sana “address key relapse challenges for CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapies,” the company said.
LONDON – Natural killer (NK) cell therapy specialist Onk Therapeutics Ltd. has raised $21.5 million in a series A, enabling it to move three lead programs into proof-of-concept animal testing and to progress manufacturing and scale-up of its cord blood-derived cells.
Recent word that Johnson & Johnson submitted the BLA for teclistamab may have reminded Wall Street that a combo-therapy face-off is in progress between the big pharma firm – with partner Springworks Therapeutics Inc. – and Novartis AG, paired with Ayala Therapeutics Inc.
