Antitumor immunotherapy has notched big wins, but in a small proportion of patients. And one possible explanation for why is that approved immunotherapies are not yet planting their flag on most of the battlefields where tumors and the immune system engage in combat. At the opening AACR 2023 plenary session, Ralph DeNardo celebrated the successes of the current, mostly T-cell-based approaches, but also encouraged his colleagues to think more broadly about the antitumor immunity.
Immuneering Corp.’s positive pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and safety phase I data with universal RAS inhibitor IMM-1-104 let the company move up the timeline for a recommended phase II dose from previous guidance of mid-2024 to early next year.
New and updated clinical data presented by biopharma firms at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, including: Abclon, Allogene, Avistone, Bold, Cantargia, Convergent, Erasca, Evaxion, Exuma, Imcheck, Immunocore, Innovent, Merck, Moderna.
Providing a much-needed lift to struggling Gamida Cell Ltd., the U.S. FDA has approved the firm’s advanced cell therapy Omisirge (omidubicel-onlv) to reduce the risk of infection in patients with hematologic malignancies aged 12 years and older who are scheduled to have umbilical cord blood transplantation.
New and updated clinical data presented by biopharma firms at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, including: 23andme, Affimed, Astrazeneca, Genentech, Harbour Biomed, Humanigen, Immune-Onc, Innovent, Mina, Morphosys, Pieris, Quanta, Renovorx, Tempest.
Combining the personalized cancer vaccine mRNA-4157 (V-940, Moderna Inc.) with Keytruda (pembrolizumab, Merck & Co. Inc.) significantly extended recurrence-free survival in patients with stage III/IV resected high-risk melanoma in the randomized phase II KEYNOTE-942/mRNA-4157-P201 trial. Compared to Keytruda alone, adding the vaccine cut the risk of recurrence or death by 44% 18 months after treatment, lead investigator Jeffrey Weber reported at the opening clinical trials plenary of the 2023 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
Heterogeneity, in both tumors and their microenvironment, limits the success of current cancer treatments. But it also provides opportunities. Heterogeneities “are not barriers to therapy, they are vulnerabilities to be exploited,” was how David DeNardo described his take at the 2023 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) on Sunday.
During what has become one of the slowest IPO years in recent memory, cancer immunotherapy company Cytomed Therapeutics Ltd. debuted on Nasdaq, raising $9.65 million, while inflammatory disease firm Acelyrin Inc. filed to list its stock for a potential $100 million. Up to this point, there were only six biopharma IPOs completed this year – the fewest since 2013. Cytomed, which priced 2.4 million shares at $4 apiece, is now the seventh for 2023, and the fifth on Nasdaq. Two other IPOs have closed on Chinese markets.
Torl Biotherapeutics LLC has raised $158 million in a series B round as it seeks to nudge its anti-Claudin-6 antibody-drug conjugate candidates, TORL-123 and TORL-2307, beyond phase I trials for the treatment of ovarian and gastric cancers, respectively. Claudin-6, or CLDN6, is a molecule that forms tight junctions around cells. It is highly expressed in a range of solid tumor types, so is a popular target for drug development.
Pyramid Biosciences Inc. has in-licensed Genequantum Healthcare Co. Ltd.’s preclinical trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (TROP2)-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), GQ-1010, in a deal worth up to $1 billion in potential milestones. Under the terms, Pyramid gains exclusive rights to develop and commercialize GQ-1010 globally, excluding greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan). In exchange, privately held Genequantum, of Suzhou, China, will receive an up-front payment of $20 million and up to an additional $1 billion in milestone payments. Genequantum will also be eligible to receive tiered-based sales royalties.
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