A new oral HER2-directed breast cancer therapy from Bayer AG, and its companion diagnostic from Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., have been approved by the U.S. FDA. Hyrnuo (sevabertinib), a reversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor, was greenlit by the agency for adults with locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous advanced HER2-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer.
Abbott Laboratories made plans to enter the cancer screening market with its reported acquisition of Exact Sciences Corp. The deal will pay Exact Sciences shareholders $105 per share in cash, a nearly 50% premium to Exact’s unaffected share price on Nov. 19. That represents a total equity value of approximately $21 billion and an estimated enterprise value of $23 billion.
Mindrank Therapeutics (Suzhou) New Drug Research & Development Co. Ltd. has divulged molecular glue degraders comprising cereblon (CRBN) ligands acting as dual eukaryotic peptide chain release factor GTP-binding subunit ERF3A (GSPT1) and casein kinase 1 isoform α (CSNK1A1) degradation inducers. They are reported to be potentially useful for the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, inflammatory disorders, autoimmune diseases and metabolic diseases.
At the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, researchers from Circle Pharma Inc. presented their recent work on developing novel compounds that specifically target cyclin D1 while avoiding the toxicity associated with targeting cyclin D3.
Anticancer drugs that work simultaneously through multiple mechanisms are sought after because of their potential for greater efficacy and robustness to resistance. Researchers at Capital Medical University and Chinese Institutes for Medical Research generated 21 ternary hybrids containing phenylsulfonylfuroxan, b-carboline und hydroxamic acid moieties.
Laekna Inc. outlicensed select rights to LAE-002 (afuresertib), an oral pan-AKT kinase inhibitor licensed from Novartis AG in 2018, to Qilu Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. under a potential ¥2.045 billion (US$287.23 million) deal.
Roche AG’s Genentech unit landed another clinical victory with giredestrant that provided a major stock boost for competitor Olema Pharmaceuticals Inc. Made public were positive phase III data from the Lidera study testing selective estrogen receptor degrader and complete estrogen receptor antagonist (CERAN) as an adjuvant endocrine treatment for people with ER-positive, HER2-negative, early stage breast cancer (BC).
Shanghai Phrontline Biopharma Co. Ltd. has described antibody-drug conjugates comprising an antibody or antigen-binding fragment targeting HER2 (erbB2) covalently linked to a cytotoxic drug through a linker reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is one of several ABC transporters that can pump drugs out of tumor cells and thereby render chemotherapy ineffective. Overexpression of P-gp can give rise to multidrug resistance, making cancers quite difficult to treat. Several inhibitors of P-gp have been described, but none has entered the clinic, mainly because of poor efficacy or adverse reactions.
Type I protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) are an attractive target for inhibiting growth of triple-negative breast cancer. Several small-molecule inhibitors of these enzymes are in various stages of preclinical development, while clinical trials of the inhibitor GSK-3368715 had to be terminated early because of poor efficacy and toxicity.
