As the six-month interim analysis of phase II data for ATA-199 in progressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) nears, investors in Atara Biotherapeutics Inc. – not to mention patients – are growing more intrigued by the prospect, an off-the-shelf T-cell candidate that targets Epstein Barr virus-infected B cells and plasma cells in the central nervous system.
Bristol Myers Squibb Co. has announced long-term data from its closely watched psoriasis pill, deucravacitinib, which it hopes will supplant Amgen Inc.’s blockbuster, Otezla (apremilast), as the main oral therapy for the disease.
Newly appointed President and CEO Jackie Shea looks to have her work cut out for her, as Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. decided to ditch its phase II/III COVID-19 vaccination trial in favor of pursuing a booster strategy with INO-4800. That update, disclosed during Inovio’s first-quarter earnings late May 10 alongside a likely delay in filing for approval of HPV immunotherapy candidate VGX-3100, sent the stock (NASDAQ:INO) falling 27% May 11. Over the past year, shares have fallen more than 70%.
A phase III failure for Roche Holding AG unit Genentech Inc.'s anti-TIGIT immunotherapy tiragolumab dragged down the share value of several other class entrants.
As the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting nears, presenters are talking up their prospects, including Biomea Fusion Inc. with early data from experiments testing BMF-219, an oral, irreversible covalent menin inhibitor – one in an intriguing class that has sparked efforts by various developers.
Not long ago, people who touted the prospects of psychedelic drugs might have been accused of hallucinating, but in the U.S. and elsewhere the space has expanded in recent years, as mental health treatments remain “stuck where cancer was 50 years ago,” said Roth analyst Elemer Piros.
First results from the U.K. Cov-Boost trial, looking at responses to a fourth dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, show that antibody levels increase more than after the third dose, confirming the precautionary move to give the most vulnerable a second COVID-19 booster in advance of immune response data being available.
Beigene Ltd. reported that its global phase III trial of PD-1 inhibitor tislelizumab in combination with chemotherapy met the primary endpoint of overall survival in first-line advanced esophageal cancer.
Connect Biopharma Holdings Ltd. pointed to positive secondary endpoint data and a numerical trend on the primary endpoint in favor of its S1P receptor modulator, CBP-307, in ulcerative colitis, but those results weren’t enough to keep the stock (NASDAQ:CNTB) from falling by more than 57% to close at 82 cents, as investors focused on the primary endpoint miss and the company’s decision to partner the program going forward.
Shares in Oxurion NV dropped 40.3% percent May 9 on news that one of its two clinical-stage assets, THR-687, failed to demonstrate efficacy in a phase II trial in diabetic macular edema (DME). The candidate, a small-molecule pan integrin receptor antagonist, failed to demonstrate efficacy in Part A of the trial, called Integral, in which treatment-naïve patients received one of two doses of THR-687.
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