Immunitas Therapeutics Inc., a company leveraging single cell analysis to identify and validate new drug targets, has closed $58 million in series B financing led by Agent Capital. The funds will be used to advance its lead program, the CD161 inhibitor IMT-009, into the clinic for testing against both solid tumors and hematological malignancies, pending approval of a forthcoming IND filing next year.
Following an interim analysis of phase III gastric cancer data, Innovent Biologics Inc. said it’s planning to seek an expanded label the company’s Eli Lilly and Co.-partnered PD-1 inhibitor, Tyvyt (sintilimab), in the indication. According to Innovent, a combination of the drug with chemotherapy met the primary endpoint of overall survival in the study, delivering a statistically significant improvement in the measure vs. placebo, also with chemotherapy.
Scientists at Cleveland-based Case Western Reserve University have used artificial intelligence (AI) to identify biomarkers contained in naturally occurring collagen that could predict whether breast cancer will return after treatment. Identified from standard tissue biopsy slides of early-stage breast cancer, collagen-based assays could also be less expensive than gene expression-based assays typically conducted at highly specialized labs in California.
Innocare Pharma Ltd. has signed a licensing agreement with Incyte Corp. for the exclusive rights to the monoclonal antibody Monjuvi (tafasitamab) for hematology and oncology indications in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Under the terms of the deal, Innocare will pay Incyte an up-front fee of $35 million, as well as up to $82.5 million in potential development, regulatory and commercial milestones and tiered royalties.
Though Revolution Medicines Inc.’s SHP2 inhibitor, RMC-4630, fell short of internally set benchmarks in a pair of phase I combo trials, the prospect remains alive, as the company has been “very publicly moving towards combining the companion inhibitors that we have, which include RMC-4630 with RAS inhibitor therapies that we and others make,” said Steve Kelsey, president of R&D.
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