BridgeBio Pharma has entered a clinical collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to evaluate the combination of BBP-398, a potentially best-in-class SHP2 inhibitor, with OPDIVO (nivolumab) in patients with advanced solid tumours with KRAS mutations with the hope of providing an effective new treatment option for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers. The… Read More
The Republic of Belarus Ministry of Health has approved expanding the ongoing clinical trial of CureLab Oncology’s Elenagen, an experimental DNA therapy, to include hormone-resistant breast cancer and hormone-resistant metastatic prostate cancer. The decision to add two more deadly diseases to the ongoing study was based on encouraging preliminary results… Read More
Earlier this year, Exscientia announced what was said to be the first AI-designed immuno-oncology drug to enter clinical trials. Lu Rahman talks to CEO Andrew Hopkins about the company’s work and use of AI in drug discovery. LR: How AI has been used in this process and what benefits has… Read More
Following the announcement by Samsung Biologics that it planned to add mRNA vaccine drug substance manufacturing services to its offering, DDW’s Megan Thomas spoke to Seahee Kim about what this means for both business and drug development. MT: As a CDMO, Samsung Biologics can offer both development and manufacturing services. Read More
Listen to this article on the DDW Podcast: Lipids are essential for numerous functions in the human body. They are not only components of cell membranes, extracellular vesicles and hormones, but also store energy, facilitate metabolism, mediate cell signalling pathways, and much more. Afrisha Anderson, a Product Manager at Merck KGaA,… Read More
Listen to this article on the DDW Podcast: At 33, Martyn Hiscox is an inspiration to scientists in oncology research. Principal scientist with Adaptimmune, a UK cell therapy biotech, Lu Rahman uncovers Hiscox’s passion, dedication and the personal reason for developing cell therapy treatments for cancer. Hiscox clearly has immense respect… Read More
David Weinkove, CEO Magnitude Biosciences, examines the untapped microbiome and its potential into helping unlock new therapies. Why the microbiome? The human microbiome is an important emerging field for drug discovery that harbours an array of life-changing medicines for patients. Whilst it is increasingly acknowledged that the human microbiome holds… Read More
RareCan, a new company accelerating research into rare cancers, has appointed Dr Anita Cooper as Non-Executive Director. The appointment is said to strengthen the scientific and pharmaceutical experience of RareCan’s board in support of the company’s planned commercial growth. With over 30 years’ global business experience, Cooper has worked across… Read More
In the UK, researchers Professor Andrew Beggs and Professor Gary Middleton from the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy and the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences have partnered with Cancer Research UK in a target identification project for the Immuno-oncology Alliance, which translates discovery science into new therapeutics for cancer… Read More
Mount Sinai researchers have developed a therapeutic agent that shows high effectiveness in vitro at disrupting a biological pathway that helps cancer survive, according to a paper published in Cancer Discovery. The therapy is an engineered molecule called MS21 that causes the degradation of AKT, an enzyme that is overly… Read More
Gadeta, a clinical-stage company developing gamma delta (γδ) T-cell receptor (TCR)-based immunotherapies for cancer patients, has announced the dosing of the first patient with GDT-002 (formerly labelled TEG002), a potential first-in-class cellular immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer. The multicentre Phase I/II study in collaboration with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,… Read More
Listen to this article on the DDW Podcast: Pierre-Louis Joffrin leads Corporate Development at Mogrify. He examines immunotherapies including an assessment of the next generation of stem cell derived products. Biotech has joined the pursuit of next-generation CAR-Ts and it’s not subtle. Some new, others having pivoted towards the area, there… Read More
Ixaka and SomaLogic have created a research collaboration to support the development of aptamer-based bispecific therapeutics. The collaboration will evaluate the safety and efficacy of antigen-specific SOMAmer reagents (modified aptamers that bind tightly and specifically to protein targets) previously identified and screened by SomaLogic as potential candidates for combination with… Read More
Immuno-oncology has advanced greatly through T cell-based therapeutic approaches (particularly immune checkpoint inhibitors). However, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) aren’t efficacious in all patients, and they carry risks. What are these risks? Courtney Ferrebee, PhD, Field Applications Scientist, Taconic Biosciences speaks to Lu Rahman. Preclinical in vivo models serve as important… Read More
Mari Scheiffele is the General Manager for Oncology in the UK & Ireland at Novartis, responsible for launching innovative oncology therapies that can help to change the lives of people living with different types of cancer. She speaks to Lu Rahman about her passion for working with her teams to… Read More
In the last decade, cancer immunotherapy has emerged as one the most promising treatments for the disease. In a recent pilot study, Professor Joachim Drevs and his co-authors; Joachim Ahlers, Eglys Gonzalez Marcano and Leona Kröhle describe how a new autologous vaccine developed in partnership with cancer clinic RGCC created… Read More
