During the conference call on earnings in March, CEO Dror Harats told investors that “the most important thing” about VBL Therapeutics Ltd.’s then-upcoming analysis of interim phase III data with gene therapy VB-111 (ofranergene obadenovec) is that it was “designed in a way that will enable us to tell the market if we are at least as good as what we've seen” in the phase II experiment.

Cytomx Therapeutics Inc. CEO Sean McCarthy told BioWorld that the longish hiatus between deals broken by the tie-up with Astellas Pharma Inc. was “very deliberate. Over that period of time, we were generating our first clinical data to get experience with how the technology works in cancer patients with our first two lead programs,” both of which have reached the phase II stage. A year ago in January, he said, the South San Francisco-based firm brought aboard Chief Business Officer Nick Galli to “hit the gas pedal a bit more in business development,” which led to the signing with Astellas, of Tokyo. Shares of Cytomx (NASDAQ:CTMX) closed March 24 at $6.53, up $1.60, or 32%.

BEIJING – Cancer and autoimmune specialist Innocare Pharma Ltd., of Beijing, made a strong debut to raise $288 million on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on March 23, marking the second biggest IPO in the city since the beginning of this year.

Princeton, N.J.-based Soligenix Inc.’s quick response testing SGX-301 (synthetic hypericin) – with results shown after just six weeks of treatment – puts the company in strong position against cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) as it readies for a “robust” discussion with the FDA.

DUBLIN – The middle of a pandemic may not be the optimal time to launch an oncology-focused company, but Klosterneuburg, Austria-based Oncoone Research & Development GmbH unveiled a €13 million (US$14.1 million) series A round Wednesday, March 18, and laid out plans to develop several different approaches to targeting an immunologically distinct form of a ubiquitous inflammatory cytokine, which is unique to cancer cells and which is associated with a poor prognosis.

Pharma has not gotten terribly serious yet about integrating digital health tools into clinical trials, let alone into their product offerings, despite the potential benefits they could offer when it comes to patient adherence, compliance and experience. Still, oncology giant Bristol Myers Squibb Co. has made a small step in that direction by partnering with Paris-based digital therapeutics company Voluntis SA.

Bridgebio Pharma Inc. subsidiary QED Therapeutics Inc., seeded in 2018 with $65 million and a license to Novartis AG's infigratinib, said the first patients have been dosed with the drug in two separate cancer trials.