Amit Deshpande

Bristol Myers Squibb has queued a Phase 1 study of Orum Therapeutics’ ORM-6151 (BMS-986497), a first-in-class, anti-CD33 antibody-enabled GSPT1 degrader for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia or high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes. The study will enroll an estimated 35 patients and is due to start in late May 2024. Orum Therapeutics has developed a new class of ADC payloads, called neoDegraders, to specifically degrade intracellular target proteins within cancer cells via the E3 ubiquitin ligase pathway. Conjugated to antibodies, neoDegraders are designed to be delivered specifically to cancer cells and degrade the intracellular target protein and cause tumor cell death. https://lnkd.in/edTcDRFj

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Dr. Nina E. Weisser, Director of Preclinical, Multispecific Antibody Therapeutics, recently authored an article published in Drug Target Review discussing the development of trispecific T cell engagers (TriTCEs) with integrated CD28 costimulation. TriTCEs are designed to address the limitations of conventional bispecific TCEs in treating solid tumors by providing balanced T cell activation, leading to potentially more sustainable anti-tumor responses. This innovative approach could significantly advance immunotherapy for patients with difficult-to-treat solid tumors. Access the article: https://lnkd.in/ewRJvPA9

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New trends in M&A deal breakdown, IO in this case... ... May shed lights on domestic and international BD licensing deal negotiation in 2024 too. Here is my scientific breakdown of the same deal 2 days ago...https://lnkd.in/exG464j8 Good to learn the business side of the deal. Michael Mischke-Reeds

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Sally Church's Biotech Strategy Blog is a must read for anyone interested in oncology. In today's post from the ASH conference in San Diego she wrote something widely understood but rarely uttered in oncology-related drug development circles: "the field needs innovative trial designs that consider both clinical and financial toxicity." Amen! Treatments that provide a few months of additional progression-free survival versus the standard of care, but at the cost of bankrupting the patient, are simply not tenable. Thankfully we have existing treatments that work well, but are plagued by adverse events. Consider lymphoma, where standard R-CHOP has a very high complete response rate. Unfortunately, R-CHOP also causes cardiac toxicities. Adding a bi-specific T-cell engager or protein degrader to R-CHOP gets the CR rate even higher, but at the cost of additional adverse events. We are advancing CVT-130, a dual-acting MDH2/CYP1 metabolic modulator, which provides robust anthracycline cardioprotection without inhibiting anthracycline efficacy, because we want to address both clinical and financial toxicities! https://lnkd.in/gpMCznqf

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We are highlighting a series of popular and impactful articles published in 2024 in our journal, Antibody Therapeutics (2022 CiteScore: 6.4). The title of the 4th article we’d like to feature is “Further accelerating biologics development from DNA to IND: the journey from COVID-19 to non-COVID-19 programs” contributed by Sheng (Sam) Zhang and Weichang Zhou from WuXi Biologics. The Coronavirus Disease (COVID‐19) pandemic has spurred adoption of revolutionary initiatives by regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical industry worldwide to deliver therapeutic COVID-19 antibodies to patients at unprecedented speed. Here, researchers briefly reviewed the acceleration approaches published for therapeutic COVID-19 antibodies and subsequently discussed the applicability of these approaches to achieve investigational new drug (IND) timelines of ≤10 months in over 60 COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 programs performed at WuXi Biologics. With demonstrated product quality and consistency, innovative approaches used for COVID-19 can be widely applied in all disease areas for greater speed to clinic. https://lnkd.in/gYwxwsga Antibody Therapeutics (2022 CiteScore: 6.4) is the official journal of Chinese Antibody Society (CAS), a non-profit, non-government global professional organization with focus upon antibody-based therapeutics. CAS’s 2024 Annual Conference will take place in Cambridge, MA, USA, on Saturday, May 11, 2024. The theme of this conference is “Beyond Borders: Advancements in Antibody-Based Therapeutics in Uncharted Territories". You are welcome to register for the conference right NOW via the following link. https://lnkd.in/ecmFPA4v   #biologics #antibody #antibodies #antibodydiscovery #antibodytherapeutics #mab #mabs #annualmeeting #annualconference

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My second post this week on the benefit of using recombinant alpaca antibodies is one that touches on an all too familiar topic Cancer. Unfortunately Cancer impacts everyone either directly or indirectly in this world and it has sadly taken a loved one away from the majority of us too soon. Cancer is a complex disease with many different varieties of it and due to such variation clinicians need an array of different tools/strategies to treat and cure the different varieties of Cancer. Scientists around the world who are alot smarter than me have been working hard in their laboratories trying to discover new ways to defeat cancer. Did you know, that these very smart scientists have now discovered that recombinant alpaca antibodies are incredibly useful tools when developing new treatments and cures for Cancer. I recently read the paper below which shows that when you combine recombinant alpaca antibodies with your own immune cells it can result in the destruction of tumors which is really cool and useful in the fight against Cancer. Indeed the very smart scientists found that recombinant alpaca antibodies were better and easier to use than antibodies from other species. This form of treatment approach that the clever scientists used is called CAR-T cell therapy, a rapidly growing area in biopharma and one which Afrobodies is developing recombinant alpaca antibodies for. If you know of anyone working with CAR-T cell therapy please share the research paper below with them so they can see the benefit of working with the coolest molecules in science, recombinant alpaca antibodies or what we Afrobodies more affectionately call Afrobods and the rest of the world calls nanobodies. Our one liner at Afrobodies is "everyone needs an Afrobod" :) Afrobodies September "back to school" offer now allows you to start working with recombinant alpaca antibodies in your own lab for an affordable price. If you are in the UK and want to access Afrobodies incredibly well priced "back to school offer" for nanobody discovery contact our distributor there 2BScientific Ltd. Maybe you can discover the next CAR-T cell therapy for a currently incurable Cancer. Together we will defeat Cancer. Who would have thought that the defeat of cancer would be a team effort between two legged humans and super cute but immensely clever 4 legged alpacas! :) #vhh #alpaca #antibodies #Cancer #therapeutics #singledomain #recombinant #afrobodies https://lnkd.in/d68DKXPQ

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👩‍🎓 Here is what we’ve learned from our recent webinar on Foundational Models in biotech: 1. 🧑‍💻 More than 50% are either actively working on foundational models (FMs) in biology or planning to. 👉 This is a high number given the fact that most of these models are just a few months old. The swift success of LLMs in the past year in almost every industry is leading people to believe that there is something here for biology as well. What exactly? That’s what most people are trying to figure out.   Using scGPT for gene perturbation is where we found concrete exciting preliminary results. That’s what we showed in the webinar and we’re actively working to make those resources open and available not just for our customer base but for the rest of the community. 2. 🛑 Out of those actively working on FMs, more than 70% have technical issues making those work. 👉 Installation and setup are the big ones here. But even after you have everything installed, it’s still not clear where you go in the sea of code files for your use case. 3. 🔒 Another high barrier for FMs adoption is around trust, privacy and security. 👉It’s not clear exactly how those LLMs were derived. Even if it’s described in a peer-reviewed publication and the model is open source. The bar is very high from a technical level perspective. Also, since many LLM services rely on API calls, scientists are not sure if their prompts, data and collective insights are propagating to a fine tuning centralized proprietary AI engine of a specific vendor. And will subsequently propagate to other scientists/ competition. 4. 🌀People are overwhelmed with the pace of FMs progress, don’t know where to start or where FMs could be relevant. 👉 Searching the web and doing your own literature review and putting the pieces together is very time-consuming. Code Ocean Capsule shortcuts your way to working with a FM since we already did all the heavy lifting and troubleshooting so you can focus on the science. It also incorporates the foundation model in the user’s private secure environment so no one else can see that interaction (including us) . #biotech #Foundationalmodels #LLMs

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<!-- Content start --> South San Francisco, CA — July 3, 2024 — Genentech, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY), announced today that the Phase II/III SKYSCRAPER-06 study, evaluating tiragolumab plus Tecentriq® (atezolizumab) and chemotherapy versus pembrolizumab and chemotherapy as an initial (first-line) treatment for people with previously untreated, locally advanced unresectable or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (nSq NSCLC), did not meet its primary endpoints of progression-free survival (PFS) at its primary analysis with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.27 [95% CI: 1.02,1.57] and overall survival (OS) at its first interim analysis with a HR of 1.33 [95% CI: 1.02, 1.73], which was immature. The combination of tiragolumab plus Tecentriq and chemotherapy showed reduced efficacy in both PFS and OS compared to the comparator arm in the intent-to-treat population, which includes Phase II and Phase III cohorts. The overall safety profile remains consistent with the safety profile previously observed for the combination of tiragolumab plus Tecentriq and chemotherapy, and no new or unexpected findings were identified. Based on these results, patients and investigators will be unblinded and we intend to halt the study. A communication will be sent to the investigators and results will be shared with health authorities and subsequently presented at an upcoming medical meeting. “These results are disappointing as it was our hope that this combination might yield improved outcomes for people living with metastatic non-squamous lung cancer,” said Levi Garraway, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer and head of Global Product Development. “We are thankful to all of the patients and healthcare professionals involved in the study, and we will leverage the learnings to inform our scientific understanding of the anti-TIGIT pathway and new avenues in cancer research.” Ongoing Phase III studies are investigating treatment settings and indications distinct from SKYSCRAPER-06. Based on today’s results, we will evaluate any relevant changes needed to the ongoing tiragolumab program. About SKYSCRAPER-06 study SKYSCRAPER-06 is a global Phase II/III, randomized, placebo-controlled and double-blinded study evaluating tiragolumab plus Tecentriq® (atezolizumab) and chemotherapy as an initial (first-line) treatment versus pembrolizumab and chemotherapy in 542 people with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Primary endpoints are overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). About tiragolumab Tiragolumab is an investigational novel immune checkpoint inhibitor with an intact Fc region. Tiragolumab selectively binds to TIGIT, a novel inhibitory immune checkpoint which suppresses the immune response to cancer. Based on preclinical research, tiragolumab is thought to work as an immune amplifier with other cancer immunotherapies such as Tecentriq® (atezolizumab). The TIGIT pathway is distinct but

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Exciting news in RNA therapeutics -- Orna Therapeutics has entered a significant strategic collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX) to develop next-generation gene-editing therapies for sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia (TDT). This three-year partnership leverages Orna’s cutting-edge lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery solutions, which are poised to enhance Vertex’s efforts in developing transformative in vivo therapies. With over 500,000 children born globally each year with Sickle Cell Disease, breakthroughs like this are a critical step toward improving lives. Orna’s innovative circular RNA (oRNA®) platform and advanced extra-hepatic LNP delivery technology demonstrate the power of RNA medicine to address some of the most challenging genetic disorders. Congratulations to both teams on this visionary collaboration that exemplifies the potential of precision medicine to deliver transformative therapies to patients worldwide. #RNATherapeutics #GeneEditing #CircularRNA #SCD #TDT #Biotechnology #LNP

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Eliah Shamir and Hannah Bender from Genentech and Si Wu from AbbVie will share how #pathology as a discipline is making an impact in #tissuebased research and the #discovery and #development of new drugs to address unmet medical needs! Check out the full #Pathobiology2025 program https://bit.ly/3yOeuxu

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Breaking barriers in ADC development: What’s next? 🔎 Antibody-drug conjugates are no longer just a concept – they’re revolutionizing cancer therapy with precision-targeted treatments. However, their success hinges on robust development strategies. Allucent explores how improved analytical methods, scalable manufacturing, and compliance with global regulatory standards are key to unlocking the full potential of ADCs. 🚀 By understanding the complex interplay of science, strategy, and regulation, biotech companies can navigate the challenges of bringing ADCs from the lab to the clinic. Dive into Allucent’s roadmap for clinical success and learn how ADCs are evolving to meet the unmet needs in oncology. 🔬 Full article below ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/dmUUXcdB #ADCtherapies #oncologyinnovation #cancerresearch #targetedtherapies #precisionmedicine #bispecificADCs #pharmabreakthroughs #drugdevelopment 

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Among the multitude of single-cell technologies, which one should you choose? A comprehensive benchmarking study by a team from Genentech can help make that choice easier. They used PBMCs to evaluate the performance of droplet, microwell, and combinatorial indexing-based methods from various companies that offer single-cell technology. 07/08/24 edit: please see response from Singleron by Harlin Jhyont below in the comment. “This study provides a comprehensive and systematic evaluation of commercially-available scRNA-seq kits and sheds light on the various strengths and weaknesses of each kit with respect to time, cost, functionality and performance, which should facilitate an optimal and informed selection of a suitable scRNA-seq approach.” “Overall, 10x FRP exhibited the highest ranked performance followed by 10x 3’, BD, Scale, 10x 5’ / Parse (tie), Fluent, Honeycomb, and Scipio. Singleron was excluded from the cell-based comparisons due to unreliable cell calling; however, based on UMI count, gene count, and usable mapped reads, it exhibited the lowest performance at the library level.” https://lnkd.in/eTk3jYVQ #singlecell #science

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#ASH24 Considering the structure and mechanism of action of huTH69-DE-vcMMAE, there is a significant risk of severe adverse effects if on-target, off-tumor targeting occurs. Specifically, how can potential toxicities from targeting normal NK cells and T cells be mitigated? 🔵 MC-VC-PABC, an enzyme-cleavable linker 🔵 MMAE with a drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) of 3.2 🔵 Fc-engineered antibody with S239D/I332E (DE variant) to enhance ADCC and CDC activity 🔵 High affinity for CD7 with a KD of 1.8 nM

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"The 12-month results from the PARADIGM Phase IIb study are encouraging, showing slowing disease progression and improved survival outcomes. This new analysis highlights PrimeC's ability to regulate the iron panel in people living with ALS, underscoring the drug's target engagement. These findings strongly support the proceeding to phase 3 testing of PrimeC in ALS." #NeuroSenseTherapeutics #ALSTreatment #ClinicalTrial #BiomarkerData #HealthcareInnovation #ProudMoment NeuroSense Therapeutics https://lnkd.in/dzVT6QWJ

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