Probably no one was surprised by the FDA’s recent nod for the combination of Alameda, Calif.-based Exelixis Inc.’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor, Cabometyx (cabozantinib), which targets MET, AXL and VEGF, and PD-1 drug Opdivo (nivolumab) from Bristol Myers Squibb Co. as a first-line treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), but investors may feel less confident about the odds for the pairing in a competitive space.

In a task made more challenging by COVID-19, the EU and the World Health Organization are rolling out separate plans to take down cancer in Europe. The European Commission Feb. 3 announced its Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, the first comprehensive European cancer initiative in nearly 30 years. A day later, WHO/Europe launched its United Action Against Cancer, billing it as a “pan-European cancer movement” to galvanize support and cooperation from grassroots to governments with the long-term goal of eliminating cancer as a life-threatening disease in the region.

KRAS is the most frequently mutated oncogene in solid tumors in general, and in lung tumors in particular. There are more patients whose lung tumors are driven by KRAS mutations than by ALK, Ros, Ret and TRK alterations. Combined. And after 40 years, they look to be getting a targeted therapy, or even two.

With the FDA approval of Keytruda (pembrolizumab, Merck & Co. Inc.) in the front-line setting of metastatic or unresectable, recurrent head and neck cancer squamous cell carcinoma, the space has become a race to develop drugs using a variety of mechanisms of action to improve the efficacy of the anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody.

Innate Pharma SA’s unexpected return to partner Astrazeneca plc all rights, in the U.S. and EU, to Lumoxiti (moxetumomab pasudotox-tdfk) for hairy cell leukemia likely triggered unease in at least some investors.

In light of its ongoing restructuring of priorities, Medigene AG, of Planegg/Martinsried, Germany, is now discontinuing its MDG-1021 development program. The company was planning a phase I study of the T-cell receptor-modified T-cell (TCR-T) therapy that targets the antigen HA-1 in patients with relapsed or persistent blood cancers after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Little more than half-a-year after closing its $78 million series A financing, Artiva Biotherapeutics Inc. has inked a new global licensing deal with Merck & Co. Inc. to develop up to three natural killer (NK) cell therapies engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) against tumor-associated antigens of its choosing. Merck will pay Artiva $30 million up front for two initial programs, plus $15 million more should it opt into the third. Each program carries $612 million in potential development and commercial milestone payments. With unfettered success, total deal value could hit $1.88 billion, plus royalties.

Boston-based Nirogy Therapeutics Inc.’s $16.5 million series A round is meant to enable a pipeline of small-molecule drugs targeting the solute carrier family of transporter proteins (SLCTs) embedded in the cell membrane, and let the firm bring its front oncology runner to the clinic in 2022.

The 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer, which was scheduled to take place in Singapore last August, is set to kick off virtually later this week. The postponement gave companies time to generate additional data as they battle to treat patients with their targeted therapies.

Tscan Therapeutics Inc. CEO David Southwell told BioWorld that his firm’s series C financing of $100 million will allow two IND filings in liquid tumors this year and three – possibly more – in solid tumors starting next year. “We’ll be filing a lot of INDs in solid tumors,” he said. The Waltham, Mass.-based firm works with T-cell receptor-engineered T-cell therapies.