Oricell Therapeutics Co. Ltd. has raised $120 million in a series B financing to support development of its cell therapy pipeline and technology platform, as well as the construction of a manufacturing plant. The round was jointly led by Qiming Venture Partners and Quan Capital Management LLC.
The U.S. FDA has approved Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. and Astrazeneca plc’s Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan) as the first HER2-directed therapy for patients with HER2-low metastatic breast cancer.
It’s an august August for Hutchmed Ltd. as it reported positive business results and a number of trial developments, including results from its pivotal global phase III FRESCO-2 trial evaluating the investigational use of fruquintinib in patients with advanced, refractory metastatic colorectal cancer, which met its primary endpoint of overall survival.
Innovent Biologics Inc. has formed a partnership with Sanofi SA to jointly develop and commercialize two of Sanofi’s oncology candidates in combination with sintilimab in China, namely SAR-408701 (tusamitamab ravtansine) and SAR-444245.
Mersana Therapeutics Inc. is getting $100 million up front in an option deal with GSK plc for preclinical-stage antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) XMT-2056, which could bring up to $1.36 billion more in an option exercise payment, development, regulatory and commercial milestones. It’s the second potential $1 billion-plus ADC deal for Cambridge, Mass.-based Mersana in 2022 and the first for its Immunosynthen platform, which uses a STING agonist payload specifically designed for ADCs.
Shares of Poseida Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:PSTX) closed Aug. 3 at $4.51, up $2.08, or 85%, as a result of the collaboration and licensing deal with Roche Holding AG that brings $110 million up front as well as the same amount in near-term milestone payments described by CEO Mark Gergen as “highly achievable,” and the arrangement could be worth as much as $6 billion if goals farther down the road are met.
Anticancer Bioscience and the J Michael Bishop Institute of Cancer Research have described fused azepine compounds reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences and Chengdu Chipscreen Pharmaceutical have presented new ATR kinase inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
With the aim of assessing the implication of gap junction protein connexin 43 (Cx43) in angiogenesis, human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells were transfected with Cx43-targeting siRNA or Cx43-overexpressing recombinant plasmid vector.