Cofactor Genomics Inc. opened the non-small-cell lung cancer portion of its study of the Oncoprism test, which predicts response to immunotherapy. The Predicting Immunotherapy Efficacy from Analysis of Pre-treatment Tumor Biopsies (PREDAPT) trial will study the test’s predictive ability in 11 cancers in total.
Oxford Biodynamics plc is launching its clinical assay Episwitch CIRT in the U.S. following clinical validation that demonstrated the 3D genomic eight biomarker panel can predict a cancer patient’s response to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy at up to 93% sensitivity, 82% specificity and 85% accuracy. ICIs are currently used against more than 15 types of cancer but less than one in three patients show any benefit from the treatment.
Intervenn Biosciences raised $201 million in a series C financing led by new investors Softbank Group, Heritage Provider Network, Irving Investors and Highside Capital Management. The proceeds are earmarked to speed development and commercialization of Dawn, a liquid biopsy assay for immune checkpoint inhibitor prediction, and to expand the network of partnerships on the company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-driven glycoproteomics platform.
New funding to the tune of $8 million in series B investment moves Oncohost Ltd. a good bit closer to bringing its personalized immunotherapy prediction platform to market and key operations to the U.S. Ourcrowd, an investment platform that simplifies investment by accredited investors and others in startups, early-stage companies and venture funds, led the round. Other participants included a group of family offices and private investors.
Natera Inc.’s personalized, tumor-informed circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assay, Signatera, accurately and quickly predicted response to immunotherapy across 25 types of cancer, in a study published in Nature Cancer.
Immunoscape Ltd. closed an $11 million global equity financing round led by U.S.-based venture firm Anzu Partners along with University of Tokyo Edge Capital in Japan, and Indonesia's NPR Holdings. The company plans to use the funds to ramp up its immune profiling technology platform, which performs deep T-cell analysis, and expand partnerships to develop vaccines for COVID-19 and other viruses as well as targeted oncology therapies.
In the Dec. 20, 2019, issue of Science, Stefan Kaufmann, who is the founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, and his colleagues report that the immune system could calibrate its response to Pseudomonas aeruginosa by monitoring the bacterial quorum sensing chatter.