Strata Oncology Inc. has inked an agreement with newcomer Elevation Oncology to ramp up patient identification and enrollment for the latter’s phase II CRESTONE study evaluating the use of seribantumab in patients with recurrent, locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors of any origin that have a neuregulin-1 (NRG1) gene fusion.
DUBLIN – Tubulis GmbH raised €10.7 million (US$12.3 million) in a series A round to progress a next-generation antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform, which, it claims, will improve both the stability of ADC constructs and the efficiency with which they are generated.
The first bispecific antibody to win regulatory approval, Removab (catumaxomab) was voluntarily withdrawn due to commercial reasons. Now Chinese biotech Lintonpharm Co. Ltd., of Guangzhou, said it plans to move catumaxomab to a global phase III trial following an IND approval from China’s NMPA, investigating the trifunctional bispecific antibody in patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis, a form of advanced gastric cancer.
HONG KONG – China and U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Antengene Corp. has closed a $97 million series C financing round, with proceeds mainly directed toward funding the continuing clinical development of its pipeline of hematology and oncology therapies.
IPOs from Alx Oncology Holdings Inc. and Pandion Therapeutics Inc. launched July 17 as investors continued to pour money into biopharma’s public sector. Through June, $8.53 billion in biopharma IPOs had been filed so far this year by 35 companies.
Robust financial markets continue to fuel the industry despite gloom over the COVID-19 pandemic, with Relay Therapeutics Inc. pricing its upsized, 20 million-share IPO at $20 per unit to reap $400 million.
HONG KONG – Shanghai-based I-Mab Biopharma Co. Ltd. expects to begin clinical trials for the world’s first and only claudin18.2 and 4-1BB bispecific program in a year. "We expect the trial to start in U.S. in the [middle of] next year. We will then expand the trial to China afterwards as planned," Joan Shen, CEO of I-Mab, told BioWorld.
Novocure Ltd. and Merck & Co. Inc. will work together to test the use of electric fields at specific frequencies in combination with anti-PD-1 immunotherapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) to treat non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The pair plan to start a phase II pilot study during the second half of Novocure’s Tumor Treating Fields in combination with Keytruda as a first-line treatment for intrathoracic advanced or metastatic, PD-L1 positive NSCLC.
BEIJING – U.S.-Taiwan biotech Acepodia Inc., of Burlingame, Calif., and Taipei, has licensed out two of its cell therapy candidates, ACE-1702 and ACE-1655, to Chinese CAR T therapy developer JW Therapeutics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. to develop and commercialize them in China, Hong Kong and Macau. Acepodia will receive up-front and milestone payments from JW Therapeutics, plus royalties on sales.
Patients with triple-refractory multiple myeloma who are running out of options may soon have a new lifeline. That’s if the FDA follows the unanimous vote of its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) and grants accelerated approval to Glaxosmithkline plc’s (GSK) belantamab mafodotin as a fifth-line therapy for adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
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