A paper in BioRxiv has described a new process that could improve the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell patient experience and reduce costs through a minimisation of the CAR T-cell therapy vein-to-vein process. The process utilises less than 300ml of whole blood from a blood draw… Read More
The Winter issue of Drug Discovery World (DDW) is out now and asks whether AI can deliver better immunotherapies for cancer and includes expert predictions on what to expect from the sector in 2024, alongside a supplement looking at SLAS2024 and an exclusive guide exploring therapeutic antibodies. Read More
US company Vaxxinity and the University of Central Florida (UCF) have announced plans to work together to advance space medicine research. The research, funded by a grant from the State of Florida, aims to develop Vaxxinity’s active immunotherapies to prevent and mitigate muscle and bone wasting. Read More
Poolbeg Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of medicines targeting diseases with a high unmet medical need, has announced promising in vivo results for POLB 001 in addressing cancer immunotherapy-induced cytokine release syndrome (CRS). POLB 001 demonstrated efficacy in reducing… Read More
Merck (MSD), through a subsidiary, has agreed to acquire immunotherapy company Harpoon Therapeutics for $680 million. The acquisition includes HPN328, an investigational delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) targeting T-cell engager being evaluated in certain patients with small cell lung cancer and neuroendocrine tumours. The announcement follows the news that Merck agreed… Read More
The International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT) has announced the publication in Nature Medicine of an expert consortium commentary addressing a recent statement from the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) that it is investigating serious risk of T-cell malignancy in patients who received treatment with BCMA- or… Read More
OSE Immunotherapeutics and Nantes University Hospital have revealed positive interim data analysis from the FIRsT Phase I/II study evaluating FR104/VEL-101 immunotherapy in renal transplants. The data was presented the Annual Meeting of the Francophone Society of Transplantation (SFT, Société Francophone de Transplantation) held in Brest, France. Read More
Bristol-Myers Squibb has received manufacturing and marketing approval in Japan for Abecma (idecabtagene vicleucel) as a third-line therapy for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). Abecma is a B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy. It is now approved for RRMM patients who have received at… Read More
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it will investigate the safety of BCMA- or CD19-directed autologous CAR-T cell immunotherapies, following reports of T cell malignancies, including chimeric antigen receptor CAR-positive lymphoma, in these patients. The reports were received from clinical trials and postmarketing adverse event (AE) data sources. Despite… Read More
Nouscom, a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing off-the-shelf and personalised viral vector-based cancer vaccines, has raised €67.5 million in an oversubscribed Series C financing round. The proceeds will enable Nouscom to advance its pipeline and complete Phase II clinical trials with its cancer vaccine NOUS-209. Representatives from Andera Partners, Bpifrance… Read More
Don’t forget to register for the DDW Turning Science into Business Summit, ‘Cancer research opportunities and advances’, to hear insight and expertise from leading international figures. The event, which will be sponsored by Taconic Biosciences, will take place online on 16 November at 7AM… Read More
Ahead of protein and antibody engineering conference PEGS Europe 2023 in Lisbon, DDW’s Megan Thomas looks at what to expect from each track of the annual biologics technology meeting. On Day 3, Thursday 16 November 2023, the tracks include: the second part of machine learning for protein engineering, antibodies against… Read More
The latest episode of the DDW Highlights podcast is now available to listen to below. DDW’s Megan Thomas narrates five key stories of the week to keep DDW subscribers up-to-date on the latest industry updates. With the first DDW Turning Science into Business Summit taking… Read More
News round-up for 6-10 November by DDW Digital Content Editor Diana Spencer. With the first DDW Turning Science into Business Summit taking place next week on the theme of Cancer Research, this dynamic area of drug discovery is my round-up focus again. Most… Read More
The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s (SITC) 38th Annual Meeting (SITC 2023) took place on 1-5 November 2023, at San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, US. CAN-2409 in non-metastatic pancreatic cancer Candel Therapeutics reported on initial positive interim data from its Phase II clinical trial… Read More
Listen to this article on the DDW Podcast: DDW Editor Reece Armstrong speaks to Christian Leisner, Chief Executive Officer of antibody therapeutics' developer CDR-Life about methods to increase access to antigens and improving immunotherapy treatments. RA: Why are existing immunotherapies restricted to certain patient populations? CL: Immunotherapies, principally anti-PD-1/-L1 checkpoint inhibitors,… Read More
