Abdera Therapeutics Inc. emerged from stealth mode with $142 million in equity funding and plans to develop a pipeline of radiopharmaceutical drugs that will employ engineered heavy-chain-only antibody domains as targeting agents. It has already identified a lead, which targets delta-like ligand 3, a Notch pathway protein, which is overexpressed in about 80% of small-cell lung cancer cases, but which is absent from healthy tissue. A manufacturing campaign is now underway, and an IND submission is in the offing.
New and updated clinical data presented by biopharma firms at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, including: Beigene, Cellular Invlos, Karyopharm, Kinnate, Mapkure, Mendus, Mink, Nouscom, Relay, Repare, Scancell, Sonnet, Springworks, Transgene, Triumvira.
Tubulis GmbH is banking $22.75 million up front and could earn more than $1 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestones from an alliance with Bristol Myers Squibb Co. focused on the design and development of antibody-drug conjugates for solid tumor applications. It would also receive tiered royalties on the sales of any products that emerge from the pact.
As investors await phase II/III data from Gritstone Bio Inc.’s closely watched trial with Granite, an individualized neoantigen vaccine for microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer, Wall Street was busy handicapping odds for firm’s new approach, given the struggles by personalized methods generally.
Final phase II data showing improved survival rates in cervical cancer is giving Nykode Therapeutics ASA even more confidence in taking vaccine candidate VB10.16 further into oncology. The company had been considering targeting head and neck cancer for months. Now, with these new data, it said it’s fully behind focusing on PD-L1 patients with up to one prior line of systemic therapy.
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.