TORONTO – Oncocyte Corp. launched Determaio, an immunotherapy response prediction test it said is “the first to comprehensively assess the tumor microenvironment.” This is important because of how smart cancer cells are in that microenvironment, Oncocyte CEO Ronnie Andrews told BioWorld, commandeering natural tissue repair biology and condensing immunological T cells so they back off attacking cancerous tissue.
A phase III trial testing the oral antiviral favipiravir for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 failed to hit statistical significance on the primary endpoint of time to sustained clinical recovery, sponsor Appili Therapeutics Inc. said. Company shares (TSX:APLI) plummeted Nov. 11, falling 53.6% to CA26 cents (US21 cents). Originally approved for the treatment of pandemic flu, favipiravir has since gained marketing authorizations for the treatment of COVID-19 in several markets.
A futility analysis of Molecular Partners AG’s ensovibep for treating hospitalized COVID-19 adults prompted an independent data safety monitoring board to recommend discontinuing recruitment of patients in the phase III ACTIV-3 study.
Kezar Life Sciences Inc. shares (NASDAQ:KZR) rose 37%, or $3.18, to close Nov. 16 at $11.59 on interim results from the phase II part of the study called Mission, testing KZR-616, a first-in-class selective immunoproteasome inhibitor, in patients with active, proliferative lupus nephritis (LN).
LONDON – Cancer immunotherapy specialist Valo Therapeutics Oy has raised €11 million (US$12.6 million) in an oversubscribed round that will fund the final preparations to move the lead program into the clinic at the start of 2022, and to prepare for an IPO later next year. The phase I will be the first test in humans of Valo’s Pepticrad (peptide-coated conditionally replicating adenovirus technology), which combines two different approaches for which there is there is separate clinical proof: oncolytic adenoviruses and peptide cancer vaccines.
A phase III trial testing the oral antiviral favipiravir for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 failed to hit statistical significance on the primary endpoint of time to sustained clinical recovery, sponsor Appili Therapeutics Inc. said.
Oncorus Inc. offered initial safety, tolerability and immune activation and clinical response data from its ongoing phase I trial with ONCR-177 at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) meeting. In the fully enrolled and completed surface lesion, dose-escalation part of the study, single-agent ONCR-177, an oncolytic herpes simplex virus for intratumoral injection, proved well-tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities.
It’s been a decade since the first checkpoint inhibitors were approved, but the problem of low response rates remains in many forms of cancer. Highlight Therapeutics SL, of Valencia, Spain, hopes to change all that with an approach that primes the body to become more responsive to immunotherapies.
RSS
