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.
Astrazeneca plc has provided data for their CD22-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) AZD-4512 under development for the treatment of B-cell malignancies, which still have significant rates of disease resistance and relapse, as well as treatment-related toxicities.
Allterum Therapeutics Inc. has obtained IND clearance from the FDA for 4A10, paving the way for initiation of a first-in-human phase I trial in patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). 4A10 is a monoclonal antibody with a human immunoglobulin G subclass 1 (IgG1) backbone that specifically binds to CD127 (IL-7Rα).
People with the subtype of B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL) associated with fusion of MEF2D with other genes show quite poor prognosis. Most patients fail to respond to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or other conventional treatments. Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine have reported a lead compound that could treat BCP-ALL.
Kymera Therapeutics Inc. has published the characterization of KT-253, a novel compound designed to degrade the murine double minute 2 (MDM2) protein, offering a promising approach for cancers retaining wild-type p53.
Autolus Therapuetics plc has been granted FDA approval for Aucatzyl (obecabtagene autoleucel) for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults, becoming the first marketed CAR T therapy that does not have a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy attached to its label. The approval of Aucatzyl was based on results of the Felix clinical trial in relapsing/remitting ALL, which showed a strong safety profile compared to existing CAR T-cell therapies. The conduct of the trial was dogged by the COVID-19 pandemic, but of the 65 patients from an initial dosed cohort of 95 for whom efficacy was evaluated by the FDA, 63% achieved overall complete remission.
More than 95% of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and 20%-30% of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients express the fusion protein BCR-ABL1. The first-generation ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) Gleevec (imatinib) has significantly enhanced the prognosis of CML patients.
Vironexis Biotherapeutics Inc. has come out of stealth mode, disclosing that it has more than 10 product candidates it’s been developing over the last three years. The therapies are built on the company’s AAV-based platform, Transjoin, which is designed to have patients' livers express bispecific antibodies that bind to both CD3 on T-cells and various targets on tumor cells.
Vironexis Biotherapeutics Inc. came out of stealth mode today, disclosing that it has more than 10 product candidates it’s been developing over the last three years. The therapies are built on the company’s AAV-based platform, Transjoin, which is designed to have patients' livers express bispecific antibodies that bind to both CD3 on T-cells and various targets on tumor cells.
Hemogenyx Pharmaceuticals plc has developed a new and improved version of its bispecific antibody CDX for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia, a subset of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and potentially for conditioning in bone marrow transplantations.
