Data presented Sept. 9 at the European Society of Medical Oncology 2022 Congress showed impressive effects for KRAS inhibitors. But they also illustrated their limitations. Earlier-stage trials and researcher presentations, meanwhile, suggested ways those limitations might be addressed. Results from the Codebreak 200 study, presented in the day’s Presidential Symposium, were typical of the best that targeted therapies have to offer: large effects for brief time periods.
Scientifically at least, the biggest story coming out of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2022 Congress is the success of cell therapy in solid tumors. “During this ESMO, there is a lot of novelty coming from T-cell therapies,” John Haanen told the audience at his joint keynote speech with Ton Schumacher – so much so that Haanen and Schumacher, both group leaders at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, left antibodies out of their keynote session in order to do justice to the advances in cell therapies.
Catalym GmbH reported in an oral session at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Paris that its first-in-class growth differentiation factor 15 inhibitor, visugromab, demonstrated preliminary signs of efficacy in a heavily pretreated group of cancer patients who were resistant or refractory to checkpoint inhibitors.
Success in two pivotal studies of high dose Eylea (aflibercept) has significantly strengthened Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s market position. But the company will face stiff competition from biosimilars and Roche Holding Group’s recently approved Vabysmo. After struggling for much of the year, the Tarrytown, N.Y.-based company’s stock (NASDAQ: REGN) rose about 20% this week. It closed 2% upward on Sept. 9 at $724.32 per share.
The bad news in March 2022 from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. regarding Natpara, its recombinant human parathyroid hormone for hypoparathyroidism (HPT), served to generate more interest in the already bubbling space, where a handful of players large and small own prospects at various clinical stages.
ESMO late breakers were released Sept. 8, and scientifically at least, a key theme of the meeting will be that cell therapies, at long last, are capable of besting solid tumors.
Inflarx NV is poised to apply for U.S. FDA emergency use authorization for its complement inhibitor, vilobelimab, in treating seriously ill, mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients, following a reappraisal of the statistical analysis of the 369-patient placebo-controlled phase III trial.
Angioplasty and stenting have combined to become the standard of care for patients with myocardia that sustained damage due to an infarct, but a new study suggests that some of these patients are no worse off with medical management compared to a trip to the cath lab.
Akston Biosciences Corp. emerged from a successful small company that was sold to a pharma major. For Todd Zion, that’s a back-to-basics move that suits him just fine. Zion co-founded Smartcells Inc. in 2003 with technology developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company went on to develop the once-daily injectable self-regulating insulin product, Smartinsulin, and sold it to Merck & Co. in what was at the time one of the largest preclinical pharmaceutical acquisitions ever.
Wall Street trimmed shares of Veru Inc. (NASDAQ:VERU) by upwards of 20% in the wake of an editorial published Aug. 23 in The New England Journal of Medicine publication NEJM Evidence. The opinion piece, by two critical-care pulmonologists, added verve to the debate about the efficacy of drugs for people hospitalized with COVID-19.
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