GSK plc’s Blenrep (belantamab mafodotin) is heading back to the market three years after being withdrawn, with the EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use recommending approval of the antibody-drug conjugate in combination therapy for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
More telling than the U.S. FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee’s 4-5 vote May 21 on the overall benefit-risk of Urogen Pharma Inc.’s UGN-102 (mitomycin) is that the panel’s urology specialists and the patient representative all voted yes, saying the drug would be an important alternative to what is often a continuing cycle of surgery for patients with recurrent low-grade intermediate-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.
Bristol Myers Squibb Co. has identified molecular glue degraders comprising cereblon ligands and a eukaryotic peptide chain release factor GTP-binding subunit ERF3A (GSPT1)-targeting moiety acting as GSPT1 degradation inducers reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Multiple myeloma (MM) is a complex disease with poor prognosis and its clinical management still remains a challenge in the field. Since both BCMA and GPRC5D are overexpressed in MM cells, a therapeutic approach targeting both would be of interest. Qilu Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is hence developing a dual BCMA- and GPRC5D-targeting antibody – QLS-4131 – for the treatment of MM.
Previous studies revealed a positive correlation between O-GlcNAcylation and tumor growth via the stabilization of target proteins, with O-GlcNAcylation transferase (OGT) being the only enzyme capable of catalyzing the addition of O-GlcNAcylation to these proteins. Scientists at Sun Yat-Sen University and affiliated organizations investigated the role of OGT in the progression and drug resistance of multiple myeloma.
Bristol Myers Squibb Co.’s decision this week to snag Bluebird Bio Inc. spinout 2seventy Bio Inc. for $102 million net – just weeks after investors bid $30 million for Bluebird itself – seemed to place a final blow on what was once a promising gene therapy company. The space in general has struggled to make business sense out of the one-time therapies that often involve complicated manufacturing and exorbitant prices, despite the life-changing value that gene therapies bring to patients. But despite some recent setbacks, biopharmas continue to plow forward with promising research in the field.
Novel therapeutic strategies are needed to overcome drug resistance and ensure prolonged remission in multiple myeloma (MM) patients. The coactivator-associated arginine methyltransferase 1 (CARM1) is overexpressed in MM and correlated with poor prognosis and, therefore, has been proposed as a potential therapeutic target.
The EMA’s Committee for Medicinal products for Human Use (CHMP) is standing by its opinion on Leqembi (lecanemab) after the European .mission pushed back against a recommendation in November 2024 that the Alzheimer’s disease drug be approved
Abbvie Inc. and Simcere Zaiming Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. are part of the volley of large deals accompanying the opening of the 43rd annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. The two have agreed to develop SIM-0500, a humanized GPRC5D-BCMA-CD3 trispecific antibody, which is in phase I studies in the U.S. and China to treat refractory multiple myeloma.
Abbvie Inc. and Simcere Zaiming Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. are part of the volley of large deals accompanying the opening of the 43rd annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. The two have agreed to develop SIM-0500, a humanized GPRC5D-BCMA-CD3 trispecific antibody, which is in phase I studies in the U.S. and China to treat refractory multiple myeloma.
