This week in drug discovery (11-15 December)
News round-up for 11-15 December by DDW Digital Content Editor Diana Spencer.
Our news highlights this week focus on haematology, thanks in part to a number of key announcements at the 65th American Society for Hematology meeting (ASH) Annual Meeting, including real-world evidence on the use of CAR-T therapies in blood cancers and new data for myeloma and lymphoma treatments.
The top stories:
First CAR-T therapy approved for earlier use in treatment of myeloma
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).
Real-world evidence supports use of CAR-T therapies in blood cancers
Real-world evidence from the French DESCAR-T registry has shown an overall response rate (ORR) of 76.9% and complete response rate (CR) of 57.7% in large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) patients treated with axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta).
New data for relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma treatment
Genmab and AbbVie have announced updated data presented at ASH from the companies’ ongoing Phase I/II EPCORE NHL-1 clinical trial investigating epcoritamab (DuoBody CD3xCD20).
UCL accelerates research of relapse in childhood blood cancer
The University College London (UCL) has entered into a partnership with ViroCell Biologics to advance Professor Persis Amrolia’s innovative chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for relapsed paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).
New class of drug shows promise in last line multiple myeloma
Data presented at the American Society for Hematology meeting (ASH) show a 70% response rate in last line multiple myeloma patients treated with CellCentric’s inobrodib in combination with pomalidomide (pom) and dexamethasone (dex).