It looks like Shanghai Miracogen Inc.’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) partnership with Synaffix BV is paying off as MRG-004A, an ADC designed to treat solid tumors, has entered a U.S. phase I/II trial to treat solid tumors.

On the last day of this year’s Molecular Targets meeting, an annual joint conference of the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute and the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer, the final plenary went from molecular to macro in a lively discussion of the biggest roadblock in cancer drug development, and what can be done to improve it.

On the last day of this year’s Molecular Targets meeting, an annual joint conference of the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute and the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer, the final plenary went from molecular to macro in a lively discussion of the biggest roadblock in cancer drug development, and what can be done to improve it.

Shares of Protagonist Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) climbed 93.9% on Oct. 11 after the FDA removed a full clinical hold on studies of the rusfertide, the company's investigational treatment for the blood disorders polycythemia vera and hereditary hemochromatosis. Triggered by a finding of malignant skin tumors in mice treated with the drug disclosed on Sept. 17, the FDA's three-weeks-ago hold had pushed Protagonist shares down by as much as 72%.

Targeted therapies are a classical example of a glass that can be seen as half full or half empty.