LONDON – Brainomix Ltd. has raised £16 million (US$ 21.2 million) in a series B, enabling the company to extend its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven diagnostic platform beyond the initial deployment in stroke, to the assessment of disease progression in lung fibrosis, and response to therapy in lung cancer.
Mythic Therapeutics Inc. officially launched with an oversubscribed series B round that garnered $103 million to design smarter, safer antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) by way of a technology originated by the company and dubbed Fatecontrol. Co-founder and CEO Alex Nichols said that, after about 40 years’ worth of development – and despite fairly recent wins – ADCs have been hampered by “toxicity and poor therapeutic index [that] have stopped them from reaching what we would consider to be their full potential.”
GE Healthcare Ltd. is expanding its cancer technology capabilities through new alliances with artificial intelligence (AI) companies and researchers. The company said it is teaming up with U.K.-based Optellum Ltd. to advance lung cancer diagnostics, as well as collaborating with the University of Cambridge to develop an AI application that integrates cancer patient data from multiple sources into a single interface.
LONDON – Inivata Ltd. is extending efforts to bring its liquid biopsies into routine use, in two new clinical trials in lung cancer. The first will attempt to show increased speed in getting advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients on to the most appropriate therapies. The second study aims to demonstrate that detecting circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) will single out those early-stage lung cancer patients who have residual or recurring disease after surgery and need further treatment with chemo- or immuno-therapies.
A novel pharmacologically targetable metabolic mechanism driving resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeting tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has been identified in preclinical models of lung cancer in a Chinese study led by scientists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.
Broncus Holding Corp.’s shares tumbled more than 20% on its first trading day on Friday, Sept. 24, in Hong Kong. It raised HK$1.55 billion (US$199.1 million) at HK$18.70 a share, the top end of its target range. Nearly half of the proceeds will be used for the R&D and commercialization of its two core interventional pulmonology products: the Intervapor system and the RF Generator + RF Ablation Catheter (RF-II).
Monoclonal antibodies are already a pillar of cancer therapy, and cancer makes up the largest indication of FDA-approved antibodies, with almost 40% of the total. At the 2021 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress, Elena Garralda predicted that engineered versions of classical antibodies will soon join them on their pedestal.
Savicell Diagnostics Ltd. has reported high accuracy results from a study validating its liquid biopsy platform Immunobiopsy. Haifa, Israel-based Savicell said the platform achieved high accuracy identifying lung cancer across stages I to IV. In a cohort of 245 participants, the Immunobiopsy test achieved 97% sensitivity and 97% specificity among patients with lung cancer.
LONDON – Breath biopsy specialist Owlstone Medical Ltd. closed a $58 million oversubscribed series D, bringing the total raised by the company since its formation in 2016 to over $150 million. The money will support further development of tests for lung cancer, liver disease and respiratory disease, and of a new class of diagnostics, which rather than measuring endogenous markers of disease, involve administering chemical probes and assessing how they are metabolized.
Innovent Biologics Inc. has inked a $312 million licensing deal for the development and commercialization of Genfleet Therapeutics Inc.’s KRAS G12C inhibitor, GFH-925, in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Innovent also has additional option-in rights for global development and commercialization.
