A year after Alkermes plc announced it would divide its oncology and neuroscience efforts into two separate businesses, the Dublin-based company spun out Mural Oncology plc with $275 million in funding and the lead solid tumor candidate nemvaleukin alfa. Shares of Mural (NASDAQ:MURA) will begin trading Nov. 16. “We’re very excited,” Mural’s CEO Caroline Loew told BioWorld. “We’ve got two major clinical datapoints in the next 18 months.”
Protein bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) is involved in transcription, DNA replication and cell cycle among other processes, and its overexpression has been linked to several types of cancer and immune disorders.
Tscan Therapeutics Inc. has received FDA clearance of its IND application for TSC-203-A0201, a T-cell receptor (TCR)-engineered T-cell therapy (TCR-T) targeting preferentially expressed antigen in melanoma (PRAME). PRAME is expressed in melanoma and other solid tumors, including head and neck cancers and non-small-cell lung cancers. TSC-203-A0201 is specific for patients with HLA type A*02:01.
Dermasensor Inc.’s elastic scattering spectroscopy device appears to have solved one of the more challenging issues in dermatology—early detection of skin cancers in individuals with darker skin tones. The device demonstrated very high sensitivity across all skin cancer types compared to histopathological exams with minimal variation between Fitzpatrick skin type groups in an analysis of the DERM-SUCCESS trial.
Krystal Biotech Inc. has received FDA acceptance of its IND application for lead oncology drug candidate KB-707 for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic solid tumor malignancies. KB-707 is a modified herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) vector designed to deliver genes encoding both human IL-12 and IL-2 to the tumor microenvironment and promote systemic immune-mediated tumor clearance.
Researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute and collaborators had previously demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy of an autologous whole tumor cell vaccine, named rWTC-MBTA, to prevent primary tumor growth and enhance mouse survival in a colon carcinoma model. The vaccine is composed of irradiated entire tumor cells (rWTC) pulsed with mannan-BAM (a pathogen-associated molecular pattern), TLR agonists and anti-CD40 antibody (MBTA).
Sortina Pharma AB has divulged sortilin (NT3; Gp95) antagonists reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.
Researchers at Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) Pharma GmbH & Co. KG and Vanderbilt University have described proteolysis targeting chimera (PROTAC) compounds comprising E3 ubiquitin ligase binding moieties covalently linked to GTPase KRAS (mutant) binding moieties through a linker.
