The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) begins its 2024 annual meeting at the cavernous and labyrinthine McCormick Place convention center in Chicago Friday, May 31. It’s one of the world’s largest cancer research conferences and can be daunting to follow. More than 400 organizations will participate this year, with about 200 sessions ready to convene. The vast majority of the 5,000 abstracts that cover all aspects of cancer treatment have already been released, and they will be scrutinized by the more than 40,000 attendees from around the world. Read More
After shares climbed 36% on May 24 following the release of an American Society of Clinical Oncology abstract detailing an impressive phase II overall response rate in first-line head and neck cancer with bispecific antibody petosemtamab in combination with pembrolizumab, Merus NV is raising $400.2 million in an upsized follow-on offering. Read More
South Korea’s Hanall Biopharma Co. Ltd., of Songpa-gu, Seoul, agreed to an exclusive licensing deal with San Francisco-based Turn Biotechnologies Inc. to develop novel ophthalmic and optic therapies using the latter’s mRNA-based technology. Read More
Celltrion Inc., of Incheon, South Korea, gained MFDS clearance of Eydenzelt (CT-P42) as a biosimilar referencing Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc./Bayer AG’s Eylea (aflibercept) on May 30. The news comes on the heels of the U.S. FDA approving the first Eylea interchangeable biosimilars on May 20. Read More
Understanding psychiatric disorders at a cellular and molecular level could provide a different perspective to design diagnostic and therapeutic tools searching for the origin of these disorders and the alterations they cause. Fourteen simultaneous studies from the PsychENCODE Consortium have delved into the cellular atlases of human neurodevelopment, reporting the broadest view of neuropsychiatry to date. Read More
Despite U.S. NIH policy and its peer-review grant process, providing for inclusive enrollment in phase III NIH-funded clinical trials seems to be a check-the-box exercise for many researchers. In a review of a sample of phase III NIH-funded trials conducted between 2016 and 2020, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found that two-thirds had the required inclusive enrollment plans, but 57% of the trial plans provided no explanation or rationale for the enrollment targets. Read More
Chris Bardon, a co-managing partner at MPM Bioimpact, shares her insights into the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference. She talks about the major trends in oncology, including development of antibody drug conjugates, which is currently the hottest area in cancer treatment. Read More
Clinical updates, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Achieve, Arrowhead, Astrazeneca, Biohaven, CDR-Life, Iliad, Immunocore, Janssen, Kiromic, Onconic, Otsuka, Rege, Remedy, Transcode, VBI. Read More
