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.

What is the outlook for investment in digital health over the coming year? A group of investment experts tackled that question during a session of the Digital Medicine & Medtech Showcase, which is being held virtually this week. Although COVID-19 was disruptive, there was a huge increase in health innovation investment last year, with a jump of roughly 56%, said Logan Plaster, director and editor-in-chief at Startup Health.

HONG KONG – Partnerships are reshaping the pharmaceutical industry across Asia, said speakers during day two of the Phar-East 2020 virtual conference. While industry has “tended to have a go-at-it-alone approach,” doing all its discovery, development and commercialization work in-house, “nothing ever came in or out. I think that’s really changed in recent years,” said Kazia Therapeutics Ltd. CEO James Garner.

Under the right circumstances, a single mouse can be as good as a group of eight or 10 animals in predicting whether a tumor will respond to a drug, researchers reported at the 2020 EORTC-NCI-AACR (ENA) Molecular Targets meeting on Saturday. The single-animal approach “allows incorporation of more tumor models within the same resource constraints,” Peter Houghton told reporters at a press conference previewing ENA highlights.

Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, professor and chair of the department of genetics and genome sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, set a positive tone in his opening talk at the 2020 annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG). "This is guaranteed to be the best-ever virtual ASHG annual meeting," he told the audience. The opening plenary abstract session, for one, did not disappoint. It began with the definition of a new disease, identified through a new approach, and possibly leading to a new way to think about rheumatic diseases.

PARIS – At the recent annual HealthTech Innovations Days in Paris, the European investment Fund (EIF) and the world’s largest life sciences consortium, EIT Health Germany, reported the development of a Venture Centre of Excellence (VCoE) in Europe.

The Chinatrials roundtable went virtual this year and drew clinical trial experts to discuss state-of-the-art clinical trial design strategies, which are increasingly important in a more competitive clinical landscape.

Wellington Life Sciences general partner Regina Hodits, during a talk with CBT Advisors CEO Steve Dickman at the recent Biopharm America meeting, said the disaster scenario feared for European investments when COVID-19 struck “turned out very different. We never have a lot of time off in summer, not as much as we would want to, but this year we certainly had no time off,” as portfolio firms found money and Wellington tapped new opportunities.

As Johnson & Johnson (J&J) made public the launch of a phase III trial with its COVID-19 vaccine, officials from the company and others at the virtual Biopharm America meeting discussed modes of innovation in the pandemic era.

HONG KONG – Technology took the front seat for a second day, at the 2020 KoNECT-MOHW-MFDS International Conference, with a discussion about the South Korean medical devices landscape attracting both criticism and praise.