Shanghai Aitrox Technology Co. Ltd. (Fosun Aitrox) completed strategic financing of over ¥100 million (US$14.8 million) to develop its pipelines in artificial intelligence (AI)-aided diagnosis platforms. This financing was led by Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co. Ltd. and Sinopharm-CICC (Shanghai) Private Equity Investment Management Co. Ltd.
The European Commission launched a new research initiative with $10 million from Horizon Europe, the E.U.’s research and innovation program, to create a cutting-edge decision-making tool to help clinicians and patients select the best lung cancer treatment based on each patient’s specific needs and circumstances. The I3Lung initiative brings together 16 international partners from Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Italy Sweden, Switzerland, the U.S. and Israel.
Clinical analytics company Medial Earlysign Ltd. is expanding an existing partnership with Roche Holding AG to commercialize an artificial intelligence (AI) solution for the early detection of lung cancer. The companies originally signed an agreement in September to develop a personalized health solution for early detection of gastric cancer. The goal of the new collaboration is to develop Earlysign’s Lungflag software, which uses machine learning to identify patients at risk of developing lung cancer.
Lung cancer claims more lives each year than any other cancer, making early and accurate diagnosis crucial to improving survival rates. To that end, the U.S. FDA has cleared the integration of Intuitive Surgical Inc.’s Ion endoluminal system and Siemens Healthineers AG’s Cios Spin mobile imaging cone-beam CT imaging technology to enhance robotic lung biopsies.
Sophia Genetics SA shared preliminary findings from its multimodal Deep-Lung-IV clinical study at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. The study is utilizing Sophia’s cloud-based, artificial intelligence diagnostic platform to identify multimodal predictive signatures of response to immunotherapy for patients with advanced lung cancer.
Roche Holding AG’s attempt to find a next-generation cancer immunotherapy has suffered a setback after the first phase III readout for an anti-TIGIT drug, tiragolumab, turned out negative. With big pharma investing heavily in TIGIT (T-cell immunoreceptor with immunoglobulin and ITIM domains), results from the company’s Skyscraper-02 trial were closely watched.
Broncus Holding Corp.’s thermal vapor treatment system Intervapor has won approval from China’s NMPA. The system is used for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer and other pulmonary diseases.
Reflecting enthusiasm for a radiotherapy that can target multiple tumors simultaneously, Reflexion Medical Inc. closed an $80 million series E fundraising round to support development of its biology-guided radiotherapy (BgRT) technology for metastatic cancer. New investors included Ascension Ventures, Catalio Capital Management LP, Sixty Degree Capital Inc. and Hillenbrand Capital Partners LLC.
Hutchmed Ltd. has received a $15 million milestone payment from Astrazeneca plc for initiating a phase III trial testing the Hutchmed c-Met inhibitor Orpathys (savolitinib) in combination with Astrazeneca’s Tagrisso (osimertinib) in EGFR-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer.
Hutchmed Ltd. has received a $15 million milestone payment from Astrazeneca plc for initiating a phase III trial testing the Hutchmed c-Met inhibitor Orpathys (savolitinib) in combination with Astrazeneca’s Tagrisso (osimertinib) in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for patients with mesenchymal epithelial transition receptor (MET) driven tumors.
