Omeros Corp. has successfully completed its initial study in nonhuman primates evaluating the efficacy and safety of its Oncotox-AML cancer therapeutic platform for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Oncotox-AML is an engineered biologic designed to selectively kill both AML blasts and relapse-related leukemia stem cells.
Amgen Inc. has swooped on two European cancer specialists, buying Dark Blue Therapeutics Ltd. for up to $840 million plus royalties, and sealing a $618 million license agreement with Disco Pharmaceuticals GmbH for rights to a novel cancer cell surface target.
Wife-and-husband team, J. Jean Cui and Y. Peter Li, launched Blossomhill Therapeutics Inc. in mid-2020 to focus on next-generation, macrocyclic inhibitors against oncology targets. The couple had planned to take some time off to rest and do a little traveling, but then the pandemic hit. “This was a great time [to start a new company],” Cui told BioWorld. “Nothing to do but reading and thinking.”
Venetoclax has shown good results for adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in combination with azacitidine, but there is increasing evidence of inherent and acquired resistance. High expression of nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase (NAMPT) has been associated with cancer aggressiveness and poor prognosis due to increased nicotinamide metabolism.
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematological cancer with limited treatment options and characterized by frequent relapse and poor prognosis. The only approved antibody-drug conjugate for AML is gemtuzumab ozogamicin, which targets CD33.
Crossbow Therapeutics Inc. has provided details on the preclinical characterization for the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT)-targeting T-cell engager CBX-663.
Sumitomo Pharma Co. Ltd. is developing the Menin (MEN1)-myeloid/lymphoid or mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) interaction inhibitor DSP-5336 (enzomenib) for the treatment of MLL-rearranged acute myeloid leukemia.
Apollo Therapeutics Ltd. has developed APL-4098, a small-molecule general control nonderepressible 2 (GCN2) inhibitor for the potential treatment of AML.
Amphista Therapeutics Ltd. has developed and presented data for AMX-883, a novel orally bioavailable bromodomain-containing protein 9 (BRD9) degradation inducer for acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
treatment.
While several targeted therapies are approved for acute myeloid leukemia, a 2023 U.K. study found that median survival following diagnosis was only about seven months, highlighting the need not only for new therapies, but for a faster regulatory strategy. At the American Society of Hematology’s 67th annual meeting in Orlando Dec. 6, researcher Jesse Tettero presented data supporting the use of a measurable residual disease (MRD) surrogate endpoint in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) research.
.webp?height=488&t=1670008838&width=650 "Acute myeloid leukemia")