CHICAGO – Attendees of the American Association for Cancer Research that stayed toward the end of the last full day of the meeting were handsomely rewarded with initial data from Grail Inc., which is still enrolling patients in its 15,000-participant Circulating Cell-Free Genome Atlas. Early results showed that by combining signals from cancer patients using cell-free DNA samples processed with whole genome sequencing, a targeted 507 gene panel assay and a whole genome bisulfite assay, it was possible to develop a test with greater than 99 percent specificity.
CHICAGO – With blocking the PD-1 pathway working so well in so many tumor types, a seemingly never-ending number of companies are taking an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach, adding their therapies to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 drugs.
CHICAGO – Following last year’s Checkmate-238 data showing that PD-1 inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab, Bristol Myers Squibb Co.) was better at improving relapse-free survival (RFS) than CTLA-4 inhibitor Yervoy (ipilimumab, BMS) in melanoma patients after surgery, Kenilworth, N.J.-based Merck & Co. Inc. presented data for its own PD-1 inhibitor, Keytruda (pembrolizumab), in the melanoma adjuvant setting at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018. (See BioWorld, Sept. 12, 2017.)
CHICAGO – PD-1 drugs in lung cancer took over the second day of the American Association for Cancer Research meeting with a trio of presentations of clinical trials in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which were all concurrently published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
CHICAGO – Despite all the focus on immuno-oncology, targeted therapy is still alive and well, albeit with a focus on small populations of patients. During a session at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting, principal investigators testing precision medicine therapies highlighted the drugs’ ability to hone in on patients in most need of additional treatments.
Despite two positive phase II trials showing serlopitant helped patients with pruritus –itchy skin – Menlo Therapeutics Inc. couldn't go three for three at the proof-of-concept plate, failing to show an effect on pruritus in patients with a history of atopic dermatitis.
Coming off a $44.5 million series A financing in late 2016, TCR2 Therapeutics Inc. snagged another $125 million in an oversubscribed series B financing to advance programs using its T-Cell Receptor Fusion Construct (TRuC) platform. (See BioWorld Today, Dec. 9, 2016.)
Like drugmakers are apt to do, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. is looking upstream of its current indications to capture additional patients for its anti-VEGF eye drug, Eylea (aflibercept), but not every analyst is convinced an additional indication will result in sustainably increased sales.
