KRAS is the most frequently mutated oncogene in solid tumors in general, and in lung tumors in particular. There are more patients whose lung tumors are driven by KRAS mutations than by ALK, Ros, Ret and TRK alterations. Combined. And after 40 years, they look to be getting a targeted therapy, or even two.
LONDON – Enara Bio Ltd. has landed the first major deal around its dark antigen technology platform, signing up Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH in an agreement worth a potential €876 million (US$1.06 billion). Reaching that figure would require a product to make it to market. More immediately, Enara is getting an up-front payment, research and preclinical milestones for each of up to three tumor types explored in the partnership.
HONG KONG – Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s toripalimab has reached its prespecified primary endpoint of progression-free survival at the interim analysis of a phase III study in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as efforts to expand approval of the anti-PD-1 antibody into other cancer types are underway.
Investigators at KU Leuven have discovered that although mTOR signaling was important in primary breast tumors and lung metastases alike, the signals that activated mTOR were different between the two, and mTOR signaling could be inhibited through different mechanisms.
HONG KONG – Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd.’s toripalimab has reached its prespecified primary endpoint of progression-free survival at the interim analysis of a phase III study in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as efforts to expand approval of the anti-PD-1 antibody into other cancer types are underway.
HONG KONG – Shanghai-headquartered Inventisbio Inc. brought in $147 million from a series D funding round to move its main products into phase II trials in the U.S. and China.
With a just-completed $100 million common stock financing, Flame Biosciences Inc. plans to target the inflammasome, a protein complex that sets off innate immune responses by activating the cytokines IL-1beta and IL-18.
LONDON – Biofidelity Ltd. has raised US$12 million in a series A, enabling it to start commercialization of a novel, low-cost, chemistry-based diagnostic for detecting all actionable lung cancer mutations. The Cambridge, U.K.-based company claims the test can detect a single molecule of mutated DNA against the background of billions of healthy molecules in a patient sample, without the need for DNA sequencing.
Diagnostic firm AnchorDx Medical Co. Ltd. is now working with the Lung Cancer Initiative at Johnson & Johnson in a four-year lung cancer study that aims to enable early detection and diagnosis of the disease in China. The study takes place at six hospitals in the country and is expected to be completed in December 2024.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) may recommend a fairly dramatic expansion of the populations that would be eligible for coverage for lung cancer screening, a bit of news that might be expected to cheer makers of CT imaging systems. However, compliance with the existing recommendations is already quite low, suggesting that an expansion of eligibility is likely to exert a negligible effect at best on utilization.
