Nearly a week after filing for a $115 million IPO that it had put off for more than a year, and two months after dosing the first patient in its phase I trial in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, Poseida Therapeutics Inc. has closed on a $110 million series D to continue its CAR T-cell therapy programs.
Oncopeptides AB remains on track for an NDA filing in the second quarter for its peptide-drug conjugate, melflufen, in relapsed refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM).
BEIJING – Cell therapies specialist Nanjing Iaso Biotherapeutics Co. Ltd. pocketed $60 million in a series funding B round to advance its CT-103A, an anti-BCMA CAR T therapy candidate for multiple myeloma, among other plans.
With new phase III multiple myeloma (MM) data in hand from Newton, Mass.-based Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc.’s Xpovio (selinexor), Wall Street began speculating about what the results might mean in the marketplace.
Paris-based Sanofi SA won FDA clearance of the intravenously given CD38-directed cytolytic antibody Sarclisa (isatuximab-irfc) in combination with pomalidomide (Pomalyst, Celgene Corp.) and dexamethasone (dex) for adults with multiple myeloma (MM) who have received at least two prior therapies, including lenalidomide (Revlimid, Celgene Corp.) and a proteasome inhibitor.
As attendees of last year’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting heard, B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-targeting therapies are steadily gaining ground on various fronts, even as companies such as Springworks Therapeutics Inc. bring forward candidates that might boost activity of the class.
ORLANDO, Fla. – The world’s biggest and certainly most lavish hematology gathering, the 61st American Society of Hematology conference, just ended in Orlando, having brought 30,024 people from 25 countries to glory in Florida sunshine, if they got outside, but mostly to bask in the discipline’s most up-to-the-minute data. The amount of research was staggering, with 5,978 abstracts available for review. Key themes included work aimed at overcoming obstacles to CAR T therapy, new progress in preventing and treating venous thromboembolism, moves to address health care disparities and new developments in the care of sickle cell diseases. Late-breakers highlighted new data on Blincyto (blinatumomab, Amgen Inc.), Sanofi SA's sutimlimab, azacitidine and Darzalex (daratumumab, Janssen Biotech Inc.).
ORLANDO, Fla. – As the enormous American Society of Hematology annual meeting wound down, the Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. of Johnson & Johnson released phase III data showing that adding Darzalex to carfilzomib and dexamethasone, compared to carfilzomib and dexamethasone alone, significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.
ORLANDO, Fla. – While disparities remain in putting minority and older patients into clinical trials and being treated for blood cancers, there are successes in getting once-ignored patients into the mix so they can receive the same treatments as others.
Significant progress is being made in the development of next-generation treatments for multiple myeloma. For that reason, investors and industry analysts alike will be anxiously awaiting the abstracts for the upcoming American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting.
