COLOMBIA – The COVID-19 pandemic has put Latin America’s biotech sector under extreme pressure and highlighted flaws in the ecosystem throughout the region, not the least of which is a lack of viable networks to facilitate cooperation.
Threads of hope and caution stitched together a wide-ranging appraisal of COVID-19 vaccines at June 9's BIO Digital plenary, "A Way Forward." The good news, delivered by one of the world's most sober participants in the pandemic response, mercifully came first.
According to Todd Haim, chief of the Office of Small Business Research at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a major issue. In his opening remarks on a BIO Digital panel, titled “Brave Innovations: public and private solutions to advance Alzheimer’s therapeutics and diagnostics in a risk-averse climate,” he provided data showing why new treatments for AD and AD-related dementias (ADRD) are desperately needed.
The biotech industry's rapid response to COVID-19, a pivot of global scope, is driving a broad array of approaches to tackling the infection. On Monday, the first day of BIO's virtual convention, the trade group gathered some of the effort's leading voices to take stock of how those efforts are shaping up. It put a spotlight on work underway at Athersys Inc., Regeneron Inc., SAB Biotherapeutics Inc., Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and Vir Biotechnology Inc.
When BIO 2019 closed its doors in Philadelphia last June, none of the delegates of the industry’s largest event would have predicted that the next meeting, scheduled for San Diego, would be canceled and the event would be transformed into a virtual version. In just a few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has decimated our normal way of life and, until effective therapeutics and vaccines become available, how we conduct the business of biotechnology will remain radically different. This will be one of the many themes explored during BIO Digital Week that kicked off today.
Overall, data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology virtual meeting over the weekend appear to have garnered investor approval, with the BioWorld Cancer index advancing 3%, by market close Monday, and a further 1.7% by the closing bell today.
A key opinion leader (KOL) consulted by SVB Leerink deemed Roche Holding AG’s anti-TIGIT drug results “really huge” and “quite amazing,” affirming the Basel, Switzerland-based firm’s lead in the field. The phase II data from the study known as Cityscape rolled out at the virtual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting.
In data taken from three expansion cohorts of Exelixis Inc.’s phase Ib study of Cabometyx and Tecentriq in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors, a 27% objective response rate was seen in those with immune checkpoint inhibitor-pretreated non-small-cell lung cancer.
Gone from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting were the packed halls of McCormick Place in Chicago and the excited bustle of scientists reacquainting with each other at the always data-rich event. ASCO’s annual confab, held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, still managed to pull off what former president Howard Burris called a “resounding success,” with about 40,000 registrants, similar to previous years.
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