KRAS-mutated tumors were once untreatable. In fact, KRAS was something of a poster child for so-called undruggability. Several laboratories are investigating strategies to address other mutations and uses beyond non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and colorectal cancer. If you can't bind KRAS to block it, use a glue or combine multiple weapons. This is the idea behind two new approaches that target cancers caused by this proto-oncogene.

Imagion Biosystems Ltd. signed a flurry of deals recently to expand its pioneering molecular magnetic resonance imaging platform Magsense beyond Australia and into additional indications to detect cancer earlier.

Immuno-oncology company Imugene Ltd. has acquired a worldwide exclusive license to Precision Biosciences Inc.’s allogeneic CD19 CAR T-cell therapy program in a deal worth more than $227 million. The off-the-shelf CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, azercabtagene zapreleucel (azer-cel), could potentially be the first allogeneic CAR T to be approved, Imugene CEO Leslie Chong told BioWorld.

The vast variety of tumors makes each cancer a world. For researchers, understanding the commonalities and divergences in their molecular underpinnings could help find successful treatments. Scientists from the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) have addressed these similarities and differences in 10 different types of cancer with two proteogenomic studies to unravel the genes that lead to cancer and the galaxy of interactions that regulate them.

Emerging from stealth mode, new immuno-oncology company Dotbio Pte. Ltd. closed an oversubscribed $5.6 million pre-series A round to accelerate development of its multifunctional and intracellular antibody therapies.

Oricell Therapeutics Co. Ltd. has become the latest Chinese biotech to advance an independently developed CAR T therapy, announcing Aug. 10 that China’s regulatory body gave IND approval for Oricar-017. Oricar-017 is the Shanghai-based biotech’s GPRC5D-directed CAR T therapy developed to treat patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Biocity Biopharmaceutics Co. Ltd. is advancing its pipeline of differentiated, modality-independent therapeutics for oncology that include small molecules, monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, as well as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). The Wuxi, China-headquartered company is focused on first-in-class molecules for different modalities that can be combined with other treatments, Biocity Co-founder and Executive Vice President Ivy Wang told BioWorld.

Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 (Trop2)-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), SKB-264, met the primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) in a phase III trial in patients with unresectable locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), according to an interim analysis.

On Aug. 3, Sunho Biologics Inc. filed to list on the Hong Kong Exchange, armed with its antibody and immunocytokine drug pipeline and post-investment valuation of ¥1.41 billion (US$196 million).