On Ocotober 9, 2019 Boehringer Ingelheim, a leading provider of animal health products for pets and livestock, reported the completion of work Wednesday after a $76 million investment in its site in Athens, Ga (Press release, Boehringer Ingelheim, OCT 9, 2019, View Source [SID1234540133]). The investment doubled the company’s capacity to produce vaccines for pets in the United States and around the world.

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U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA), on left, visited Boehringer Ingelheim’s site in Athens, Georgia.
U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA), on left, visited Boehringer Ingelheim’s site in Athens, Georgia.
"Today’s announcement is representative of the growth and investment Boehringer Ingelheim is making around the United States. It also signals our commitment to a world in which no animal suffers from a preventable disease," said Everett Hoekstra, president of Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc. "We are excited about what’s in store for our company and our communities, and for the future of animal health."

U.S .Senator David Perdue (R-GA) visited Boehringer Ingelheim’s site in Athens on Wednesday to help mark the occasion.

"Boehringer Ingelheim continues to be a strong contributor to our economy," Perdue said. "Their investment in Georgia is a testament to our outstanding universities, growing biosciences industry, and business-friendly climate."

Headquartered in Duluth, Ga., Boehringer Ingelheim’s U.S. Animal Health Business has increased its manufacturing capacity in recent years at several sites in Georgia and in St. Joseph, Mo., where the company has maintained operations for more than a century.

Since 2017, the company has been delivering on its commitment to invest more than $124 million in Georgia and create 225 jobs in Athens, Duluth, and Gainesville.

Boehringer Ingelheim employs about 440 people in Athens. The site produces more than 150 vaccines for pets, poultry and wildlife sold in more than 80 countries, protecting animals from diseases like rabies. The site produces several hundred million doses of vaccines a year.

"Boehringer Ingelheim’s products help support Georgia’s critical agriculture industry and I personally want to congratulate the company and its employees on completing this expansion in Athens," Perdue said.

On Ocotober 9, 2019 Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR) reported that it will webcast its quarterly earnings conference call for the third quarter 2019 on Thursday, October 24, 2019 beginning at 8:00 a.m. ET and lasting approximately 1 hour (Press release, Danaher, OCT 9, 2019, View Source [SID1234540132]).

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The call and an accompanying slide presentation will be webcast on the "Investors" section of Danaher’s website, www.danaher.com, under the subheading "Events & Presentations." A replay of the webcast will be available shortly after the conclusion of the presentation and will remain available until the next quarterly earnings call.

You can access the conference call by dialing 866-503-8675 within the U.S. or +1 786-815-8792 outside the U.S. a few minutes before 8:00 a.m. ET and notifying the operator that you are dialing in for Danaher’s earnings conference call (access code 6177645). A replay of the conference call will be available shortly after the conclusion of the call until October 31, 2019. You can access the replay dial-in information on the "Investors" section of Danaher’s website under the subheading "Events & Presentations."

Danaher’s earnings press release, the webcast slides and other related presentation materials will be posted to the "Investors" section of Danaher’s website under the subheading "Quarterly Earnings" beginning at 6:00 a.m. ET on the date of the earnings call and will remain available following the call.

On October 9, 2019 City of Hope reported that it has opened a first-in-human clinical trial for patients with recurrent glioblastoma – the trial is the first to combine City of Hope’s chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that target the IL13Rα2 antigen common on brain tumor cells in combination with nivolumab (commercial name: Opdivo), an anti-PD1 antibody, and ipilimumab (commercial name: Yervoy), also a checkpoint inhibitor that blocks the CTLA-4 protein (Press release, City of Hope, OCT 9, 2019, View Source [SID1234540131]).

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To launch the randomized trial, National Institutes of Health (R01CA236500) awarded $3.3 million over five years to Behnam Badie, M.D., The Heritage Provider Network Professor in Gene Therapy and chief of City of Hope’s Division of Neurosurgery, and Christine Brown, Ph.D., City of Hope’s The Heritage Provider Network Professor in Immunotherapy, and deputy director of City of Hope’s T Cell Therapeutics Research Laboratory; Brown and Badie also received $800,000 from Gateway for Cancer Research.

"Our hope is that by combining two powerful immunotherapies – CAR T cell therapy and checkpoint inhibitors – we can find additional treatments for patients with malignant glioma, who currently have few options," Brown said. "In addition, the trial will allow us to conduct liquid biopsies of the cerebrospinal fluid throughout the treatment time to query the central nervous system, furthering our understanding of how checkpoint inhibitors alter the function and persistence of CAR T cells, as well as how it potentially promotes endogenous immune responses in the brain."

The trial will deliver CAR T cells that target IL13Rα2 locally to the brain, by direct injection to the tumor site and through infusion into the ventricular system. City of Hope was the first to use this type of delivery for glioblastoma patients receiving CAR T treatment, as well as the first to investigate CAR T cells targeting IL13Rα2. A 2016 case study in the New England Journal of Medicine outlined how a City of Hope patient’s brain cancer regressed for 7.5 months after receiving CAR T therapy to effectively attack cells with IL13Rα2.

With product provided by Bristol-Myers Squibb, patients will also receive nivolumab and ipilimumab. Nivolumab is an immune checkpoint inhibitor that can prevent the PD-1 protein from doing its job, which is to suppress the immune system from fighting cancer. By putting PD-1 in check, the body’s immune system can better fight cancerous cells. Ipilimumab blocks the CTLA-4 protein in a similar way.

For the trial, all patients will receive the IL13Rα2 CAR T cells weekly, combined with nivolumab every other week. Patients on the experimental arm will additionally receive ipilimumab and nivolumab, each dosed once 14 days prior to the start of combination therapy with CAR T cells plus nivolumab.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of nivolumab for patients with various cancers, including metastatic melanoma, nonsmall cell lung cancer, classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and head and neck cancer. Clinical trials are underway at City of Hope and other institutions to expand the use of nivolumab for other cancers or for use with other therapies. The FDA has approved the use of ipilimumab for metastatic melanoma or in combination with nivolumab for renal cell carcinoma and colorectal cancer.

Mustang Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: MBIO) is the exclusive licensee of City of Hope patents covering its IL13Rα2-specific CAR T cell therapy.

On October 9, 2019 Pharm-Olam, a global midsized CRO, reported that the company’s board of directors has elected Robert Davie, Ph.D., as its new chief executive officer (Press release, Pharm-Olam International LTD, OCT 9, 2019, View Source [SID1234540130]). Pharm-Olam provides full-service clinical development solutions for oncology-hematology, infectious disease, vaccines, and rare diseases.

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Davie succeeds David Grange who has served as Pharm-Olam’s CEO since April 2017. Grange will remain a director and vice chairman of the company’s board and will continue to support the organization and its work in U.S. government-funded research, which is an expanding area of Pharm-Olam’s business.

"Rob Davie is a respected leader who has worked within the CRO industry for over 25 years. We look forward to his leadership and knowledge supporting the continued growth of Pharm-Olam," said Zev Munk. M.D., founder and chairman of the board. "We also extend our sincere thanks to David Grange for his leadership over the past two-and-a-half years, having transformed Pharm-Olam’s therapeutic focus while achieving record sales for 2018."

Davie previously held critical roles within Covance, most recently as vice president and general manager of global clinical development.

"Pharm-Olam presents a unique opportunity with an organization already positioned for continued expansion, and where I can leverage my expertise in scaling a CRO to achieve its accelerated growth strategy," Davie said.

Grange expressed his appreciation to the Pharm-Olam team and the sponsors the company serves. "I am leaving them in excellent hands," Grange said. "With Rob as its leader, Pharm-Olam will continue supporting our sponsors and helping them create a healthier world for the patients and treatments we research."

On October 9, 2019 Genprex, Inc. (NASDAQ: GNPX), a clinical-stage gene therapy company, reported that it will be presenting at the inaugural MicroCap Rodeo Investor Conference in Austin, Texas on Tuesday, October 15 at 9:10 a.m. CDT (Press release, Genprex, OCT 9, 2019, View Source [SID1234540129]).

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Genprex’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rodney Varner, will lead the company’s presentation and will be available for one-on-one investor meetings. The presentation will also be available via live webcast. Following the presentation, an archived recording will be available for later viewing.

Genprex will present at the MicroCap Rodeo Investor Conference as follows:

Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Time: 9:10 a.m. CDT

Venue: Hilton Austin – Downtown, 500 East 4th Street, Austin, Texas 78701

Webcast: View Source

To learn more about the MicroCap Rodeo’s inaugural event October 15-16, 2019 in Austin, please visit microcaprodeo.com. Registration is free. The MicroCap Rodeo is focused on the best ideas concept, bringing some of the best stories to the event for two days of private meetings, presentations and after-hours networking.