Shanghai-based Henlius Biotech Inc. and India’s Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. agreed upon a potential €185 million (US$195.38 million) licensing deal for Intas to develop and sell Henlius’ China NMPA-approved lung cancer drug, serplulimab, across Europe and India. Serplulimab (HLX-02) is a recombinant humanized PD-1 monoclonal antibody (MAb) injection that first gained approval as Hansizhuang in March 2022.
This summer’s phase III news from Qilu Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. with iruplinalkib – an oral inhibitor of ALK and ROS1 tyrosine kinase – reinforced an ongoing interest in the pair of oncology targets, where a handful of developers remain busy. Most notably of late is Nuvalent Inc., which rolled out stock-boosting data Oct. 4.
Chimeric Therapeutics Ltd.‘s chlorotoxin (CLTX) CAR T therapy, CHM-1101, which is derived from scorpion toxin, saw a disease control rate of 55%, exceeding the historical disease control rates of 20% to 37% in heavily pre-treated patients with glioblastoma.
A new deal between privately held Hummingbird Bioscience Pte. Ltd. and Endeavor Biomedicines Inc. is just one of three antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) agreements reached in the past week, marking a fourth-quarter surge for the therapy.
Elevar Therapeutics Inc. and Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.’s licensing deal for camrelizumab (SHR-1210; Airuika in China) will add the PD-1 antibody to Elevar’s liver cancer armory for pairing with rivoceranib, its tyrosine kinase inhibitor on the brink of U.S. FDA review.
GSK plc is the latest pharma giant to bite the “magic bullet” of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) drugs, promising to pay the Chinese immunotherapy developer Hansoh Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. $85 million up front and over $1.4 billion in milestone payments in a licensing deal for HS-20089.
Immutep Ltd.’s lead candidate, eftilagimod (IMP-321, efti), a lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3) fusion protein and major histocompatibility complex class II agonist, delivered an overall survival benefit of 35.5 months in the TACTI-002 trial that combined efti with Merck & Co. Inc.’s Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as first-line treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at two years follow-up.
Some cancers with a poor prognosis have had no new treatments in decades. Advances in the genetic characterization of these tumors now offer a range of possibilities for the development of new therapies that could completely change the quality of life and survival of these patients.
Abbisko Therapeutics Co. Ltd. announced positive first-in-human data for its highly selective fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) 4 inhibitor, irpagratinib (ABSK-011), for treating advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with FGF19 overexpression, which is seen in roughly 30% of liver cancers.
Precision cancer biotech Abion Inc. announced a positive interim phase II readout for ABN-401, its novel c-mesenchymal-epithelial transition (c-MET)-targeting tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), lighting a runway to its next trial as a combination regimen.
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