Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. will acquire Lightpoint Medical Ltd. in a $35 million deal that will expand its urology pipeline and bring in house a new surgery-focused unit. Under the terms of the deal, Telix of Melbourne, Australia, will pay Lightpoint $20 million up front and a further $15 million on achievement of certain development milestones. The up-front payment will be paid in equity, and the additional milestones will be payable in cash or equity, at Telix’s election.
A new study from Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Poland’s Medical University of Lodz suggests a simple blood test could detect ovarian and breast cancer without the need for genetic sequencing, paving the way for broader and less costly screening campaigns.
Exact Sciences Corp. demonstrated a significant increase in accuracy with the latest version of its Cologuard test for colorectal cancer in its pivotal BLUE-C study. Top-line results released this week showed that the next-generation test exceeded the specificity and sensitivity seen in the DEEP-C study that underpinned U.S. FDA approval of the commercially available version of Cologuard, a stool-based assay.
Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. will acquire Lightpoint Medical Ltd. in a $35 million deal that will expand its urology pipeline and bring in house a new surgery-focused unit. Under the terms of the deal, Telix of Melbourne, Australia, will pay Lightpoint $20 million up front and a further $15 million on achievement of certain development milestones. The up-front payment will be paid in equity, and the additional milestones will be payable in cash or equity, at Telix’s election.
Radiotherapy fractionation has had a significant impact on the morbidity associated with the procedure across a number of cancer types, and the U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says it may be time to fractionate further for some breast cancer patients.
Avenda Health Inc. reported new study results showing its Unfold AI platform, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to map a tumor’s location within the prostate, encapsulates all of the clinically significant cancer present in the gland more effectively than standard care.
Beyond Air Inc. completed a senior secured debt financing of up to $40 million from Avenue Capital Group to support the company’s commercial launch of the Lungfit PH and further development of the Lungfit platform. Beyond Air is focused on applications of nitric oxide for the treatment of patients with a range of respiratory conditions. Its affiliate, Beyond Cancer Ltd., is developing a treatment for solid tumors that uses an ultra-high concentration of nitric oxide.
Since accelerated approvals first began to be granted in 1992, their pace for cancer indications has increased dramatically but a revolution in science has made it tough for the U.S. FDA to find its balance.
When combined with chemotherapy, the PD-1 inhibitor antibody toripalimab reduced the risk of death by 37% over chemotherapy alone when used first line in patients with recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Coherus Biosciences Inc. revealed at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting (ASCO).
The U.S. FDA has issued a final guidance for non-clinical performance testing for tissue containment bags used during power morcellation procedures, and the FDA had recommended in 2020 containment bags always be used during morcellation procedures. Despite the FDA’s advisory, a survey of surgeons published last year suggested that most of these procedures are not done with these containment systems, possibly because the rate of procedure-related complications is considerably higher when containment is used.
