CHICAGO – Despite all the focus on immuno-oncology, targeted therapy is still alive and well, albeit with a focus on small populations of patients. During a session at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting, principal investigators testing precision medicine therapies highlighted the drugs’ ability to hone in on patients in most need of additional treatments.
Despite two positive phase II trials showing serlopitant helped patients with pruritus –itchy skin – Menlo Therapeutics Inc. couldn't go three for three at the proof-of-concept plate, failing to show an effect on pruritus in patients with a history of atopic dermatitis.
Coming off a $44.5 million series A financing in late 2016, TCR2 Therapeutics Inc. snagged another $125 million in an oversubscribed series B financing to advance programs using its T-Cell Receptor Fusion Construct (TRuC) platform. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 9, 2016.)
Like drugmakers are apt to do, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is looking upstream of its current indications to capture additional patients for its anti-VEGF eye drug, Eylea (aflibercept), but not every analyst is convinced an additional indication will result in sustainably increased sales.
As 22,000 participants prepare to descend on Chicago next month for the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2018 meeting, the organization released many of the abstracts for presentations. Unfortunately, as Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat wrote in a note to clients, "Most abstracts of significance are all embargoed."
A new report by strategy and marketing consultants Simon-Kucher & Partners found that drug companies that involve their pricing and market access (P&MA) teams early in the development of drugs appear to be the most profitable.
Going after neurodegenerative diseases where lysosomal dysfunction is an underlying cause, Prevail Therapeutics Inc. announced a $75 million series A round to fund development of its gene therapies.
