PERTH, Australia – Imagion Biosystems Ltd. has entered a collaborative research program with Patrys Ltd. to combine their technologies to target brain tumor imaging and diagnosis.

Beigene Ltd.’s PARP inhibitor, pamiparib, won conditional approval from China’s National Medical Products Administration for treating patients with germline BRCA mutation-associated recurrent advanced ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer who have been treated with two or more lines of chemotherapy.

Avenda Health Inc. has taken a page out of the breast cancer book with a new technology that offers very localized treatment of prostate tumors in a procedure the company refers to as a prostate cancer lumpectomy. The FDA granted breakthrough device designation to the product based on its potential to transform care for one of the most common cancers.

The discovery of synthetic lethality between BRCA mutations and PARP inhibitors ranks has led to major advances in the treatment of BRCA-mutated cancers. Mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 can leave cells with a deficiency in homologous repair (HR). And that deficiency can make them vulnerable to PARP inhibitors, which block alternate DNA repair pathways, as well as platinum-based treatment, which induces DNA mutations that BRCA-deficient cells are unable to cope with.