At the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) meeting that ended yesterday in Houston, Dragonfly Therapeutics Inc. reported the first preclinical data on DF-6215, an alpha-active IL-2-Fc, for cancer immunotherapy.

Ideaya Biosciences Inc. has exercised its option for an exclusive worldwide license for Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) Co. Ltd.’s B7H3/PTK7 topo-I-payload bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), BCG-034 (IDE-034), and nominated it as a development candidate.

Cancer therapies can eliminate specific tumors based on their genetic content. However, some cancer cells survive. How do they do it? Part of the answer lies in extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA), an ace up the tumors’ sleeve to adapt and evade attack. Three simultaneous studies in the journal Nature lay all the cards on the table, revealing ecDNAs’ content, their origin, their inheritance, their influence in cancer, and a way to combat them.

University of Auckland senior research fellow Jeff Smaill first visited China in 2012 as part of a team of 15 scientists from the Maurice Wilkins Center, one of New Zealand’s centers of excellence, to meet with scientists at the Guangzhou Institute of Medicine and Health to find partners to collaborate on drug development projects. The scientists started collaborating that year, and the first project is already in phase I trials in China. It was a joint discovery and development partnership from the beginning, he said.

While the size of the market is enormous, drug development and treatments for women’s health care still lag behind what is offered for men. There has been a renaissance in the past few years, however, led by investors and companies that have wrestled with determining exactly what encompasses women’s health and how to meet its challenges.