Nearly six years after Ichnos Sciences Inc. launched operations, a subsidiary of the now-named Ichnos Glenmark Innovation (IGI) Inc. has signed with Abbvie Inc. a global licensing partnership for trispecific antibody ISB-2001 worth $1.925 billion plus royalties. ISB-2001, which targets BCMA, CD38 and CD3, is in a phase I trial for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma and has orphan drug and fast track status in the U.S
Degradation is a therapeutic strategy that could offer possibilities to get at currently undruggable target proteins. In targeted degradation, compounds induce interactions between a target protein and a protein that can tag the target for degradation. In principle, there are several pathways that could be used for such tagging; the most attention has gone to ubiquitin ligases, in particular cereblon, a protein that is part of a ubiquitin ligase complex and the target of several approved drugs.
Gewu Biotechnology (Jiangsu) Co. Ltd. has described histone-lysine N-methyltransferase EZH1 and/or EZH2 inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases, and genetic, hematological, neurological, psychiatric and inflammatory disorders.
Amphista Therapeutics Ltd. has identified compounds acting as bromodomain-containing protein 9 (BRD9) degradation inducers reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Nanjing Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has disclosed bifunctional compounds acting as RAC serine/threonine-protein kinase (AKT; PKB) degraders reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 1 (ROR1), a receptor tyrosine kinase activated by Wnt5, is mainly expressed during fetal development and plays a crucial role in processes such as neurodevelopment and angiogenesis. ROR1 is nearly absent in most adult and pediatric tissues but is overexpressed in various malignancies, including leukemia and lung and breast cancers. Its expression has been correlated with poor clinical outcomes, and therefore, it is considered a promising cancer therapeutic target.
Targeting SHP2 has emerged as a promising approach for treating cancers driven by receptor tyrosine kinases. Although allosteric SHP2 inhibitors have shown strong antitumor activity in preclinical studies, their clinical efficacy as monotherapies has been limited. Recent studies indicate that combining SHP2 inhibitors with kinase inhibitors may enhance treatment effectiveness and help overcome therapeutic resistance.
China has proved to be a fertile ground for innovation as evidenced by some big deals in the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) space, and the number of candidates entering clinical trials in China or being advanced in the U.S. by Chinese companies.
Actithera A/S is poised to bring small-molecule pharmacokinetics to radiopharmaceuticals after closing a $75.5 million series A that will fund initial clinical development of a candidate targeting the elusive fibroblast activation protein (FAP).
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and collaborators have developed a new method to label and monitor dormant breast cancer cells over time, shedding light on how these cells survive chemotherapy and potentially trigger metastatic relapse in the lung. Breast cancer frequently recurs in distant metastatic sites, even after the primary tumor has fully regressed following initial therapy.