HONG KONG – Bionetix Inc., of Suwon, South Korea, has secured ₩10.8 billion (US$9.33 million) in series B funding. The biotech, founded in February 2017, has attracted a total of KRW14.7 billion to date. The company will use the funds to advance NTX-301, a therapy for myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myeloid leukemia (MDS/AML) with epigenetic dysregulation, and NTX-101, a glaucoma treatment.
SAN FRANCISCO – Following years of mutual admiration, Germany's Biontech SE is moving to acquire Cambridge, Mass.-based Neon Therapeutics Inc., a neoantigen-based T-cell therapy specialist, in an all-stock transaction valued at about $67 million.
BEIJING – In a deal that adds another clinical-stage program to its pipeline, U.S.-China biotech Oncologie Inc. has picked up global rights to phase II-ready anti-DLL4/VEGF bispecific antibody navicixizumab from London-based Mereo Biopharma Group plc.
HONG KONG – In less than a year, China-based Shanghai Miracogen Inc. has extended its partnership with Oss, the Netherlands based Synaffix BV for a second antibody-drug conjugate (ADCs) candidate. The new deal is similar to one signed last year in that it gives Miracogen nonexclusive rights to Synaffix’s Glycoconnect and Hydraspace ADC technologies for use in a second clinical candidate.
It is equally fair to say that lung cancer treatment has come a long way, and that it has a long way to go. Speaking at a joint conference by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and the American Association for Cancer Research on lung cancer translational research, William Pao remembered the stark realities of being an oncology fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center just 20 years ago, when the main lung cancer “procedure” done by trainees was to get a DNR, or do-not-resuscitate order, from their patients.
SAN FRANCISCO – Guardant Health Inc. has set the standard for liquid biopsy. That success has catapulted the Redwood City, Calif.-based company from an IPO in the fall of 2018 to a current valuation in excess of $7 billion. It has made its name – and much of its revenue – with its Guardant360 test, a molecular diagnostic test that assesses 74 cancer-related genes from the circulating tumor DNA to aid in designing the best treatment for advanced cancer patients with solid tumors.
Adaptimmune plc continued its bright start to the year by entering an alliance worth up to $897.5 million with Astellas Pharma Inc. to co-develop and co-commercialize stem cell-based allogeneic CAR T and T-cell receptor (TCR) cell therapies.
SAN DIEGO – Allele-specific KRAS inhibitors are “the most exciting change coming down the pike for treating KRAS-mutant tumors in the near future,” Ferdinandos Skoulidis said at the sixth joint conference by the American Association for Cancer Research and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer meeting.
While companies have seen plenty of success treating blood cancers with T-cell therapies, solid tumors have largely remained the holy grail for T cells. But Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc has early data from its Specific Peptide Enhanced Affinity Receptor T-cell platform suggesting it may be on the right path for a platform with a wide breadth.
BEIJING – China-based Innovent Biologics Inc. will need to get on two new tasks this year: Preparing for the first clinical trial for an anti-TIGIT antibody in China and investigating the combination therapy of its PD-1 antibody, Tyvyt (sintilimab), and Sirnaomics Inc.’s RNAi drug candidate, STP-705.
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