On October 28, 2020 M.S.Q. Ventures ("MSQ") reported that its client, BioInvent International, AB ("BioInvent"), has successfully entered into a licensing agreement with CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("CASI") for the development and commercialization of BI-1206 in the Greater China region (Press release, BioInvent, OCT 28, 2020, https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/bioinvent-completes-first-licensing-agreement-in-greater-china-advised-by-msq-ventures-887248266.html [SID1234569273]). BI-1206 is BioInvent’s proprietary clinical stage anti-FcγRllB antibody developed to treat a variety of cancers including Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and advanced solid tumors.

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Martin Welschof, Ph.D., CEO of BioInvent, stated, "The agreement is a further validation of BioInvent’s robust discovery platform and innovative clinical program, where we welcome new opportunities to develop therapeutics for patients in additional regions, as we did here for Greater China in partnership with CASI." Dr. Welschof said, "MSQ team has been working seamlessly as our external team focused on developing and executing China strategy and diligently helped us identify, evaluate and advise on current and future strategic opportunities to continue to expand BioInvent’s capability to deliver for cancer patients in the region. We appreciated MSQ’s help so that we can complete this transaction smoothly and expediently in mostly virtual fashion during this challenging time."

Wei-Wu He, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of CASI, said, "Our goal at CASI is to pursue innovative drugs to complement our core pipeline and therapeutic areas. BI-1206’s potential to be used in combination with leading immunotherapy agents fits very well with our strategic thinking and is what attracted us to this opportunity. We are impressed with BioInvent team’s accomplishments to date and we look forward to greater success together."

"BioInvent’s lead asset BI-1206 is complementary to CASI’s pipeline. The two teams have a good cultural fit which is important for global clinical development and commercialization of BI-1206. Clinical development in China will accelerate BI-1206’s overall global development timeline, creating significant value," said Echo Hindle-Yang, CEO of MSQ. "We congratulate Martin, Wei-Wu and the team of BioInvent and CASI on this remarkable achievement."

On October 28, 2020 Lannett Company, Inc. (NYSE: LCI) reported that it will report financial results for its fiscal 2021 first quarter on Wednesday, November 4, 2020, after the market closes (Press release, Lannett, OCT 28, 2020, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lannett-to-report-fiscal-2021-first-quarter-financial-results-host-conference-call-on-wednesday-november-4-301161500.html [SID1234569270]). Lannett management will host a conference call that same afternoon at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time to review the company’s performance and answer questions.

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The conference call will be available to interested parties by dialing 800-447-0521 from the U.S. or Canada, or 847-413-3238 from international locations, passcode 49992942. The call will be broadcast via the Internet at www.Lannett.com. Listeners are encouraged to visit the website at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the scheduled presentation to register, download and install any necessary audio software. A playback of the call will be archived and accessible on the same website for at least three months.

On October 28, 2020 Rarecells, Inc. (USA), a leading Liquid Biopsy company,reported that National Institute of Integrative Medicine’s (Melbourne, Australia) researchers obtained striking results in a group of Australian men using the ISET test for early prostate cancer diagnosis through the detection of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) positive Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC) (Press release, RARECELLS, OCT 28, 2020, View Source [SID1234569269]).

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The peer-reviewed article published in the journal Frontiers in Oncology (article), shows that the prostate cancer test based on CTC harvested with the ISET technology and identified by the Immuno-Cytochemistry (ICC) PSA marker has an estimated positive-predictive-value (PPV) of 99% and negative-predictive-value (NPV) of 97%, providing a more reliable screening test for prostate cancer than the standard PSA blood test (PPV = 25%; NPV = 15.5%).

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in men worldwide. Due to the limited sensitivity and specificity of the standard PSA test, a relevant proportion, close to 75%, of unnecessary prostate biopsies are performed every year, generating avoidable costs and suffering.

"This new non-invasive test based on ISET technology allows for early detection of prostate cancer more accurately than the standard PSA test. Improving the accuracy of tests for early cancer detection may reduce the burden of unnecessary biopsies," said NIIM Director of Research, and Chief Investigator Associate Professor Karin Ried.

Davide Brechot, Deputy Director and CTO at Rarecells commented: "NIIM’s preliminary data obtained with the ISET technology opens the way to a more reliable prostate cancer screening test driving earlier curative interventions while reducing unnecessary, painful and costly prostate biopsies. They add to the body of published evidence of ISET technology’s excellence in cancer diagnostics and management "

ISET has been validated by more than 85 independent scientific publications on 3,400 cancer patients and more than 1,200 cancer-free individuals (see www.rarecells.com). It demonstrates unparalleled performance for the isolation and characterization of individual CTC and CTC clusters.

On October 28, 2020 PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTCT) reported that management will present a company overview at the following conferences (Press release, PTC Therapeutics, OCT 28, 2020, View Source [SID1234569268]):

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Credit Suisse 29th Annual Virtual Healthcare Conference
Wednesday, November 11th at 9:30 a.m. ET

Barclays Virtual Gene Editing & Gene Therapy Summit
Monday, November 16th at 3:30 p.m. ET

The presentations will be webcast live on the Events and Presentations page under the investor relations section of PTC Therapeutics’ website at www.ptcbio.com and will be archived for 2 weeks following the presentation. It is recommended that users connect to PTC’s website several minutes prior to the start of the webcast to ensure a timely connection.

On October 28, 2020 Gracell Biotechnologies Inc. ("Gracell"), a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing highly efficacious and affordable cell therapies for the treatment of cancer, reported it has secured $100 million in Series C funding (Press release, Gracell Biotechnologies, OCT 28, 2020, View Source [SID1234569266]). The round is led by Wellington Management Company, OrbiMed and Morningside Ventures, and joined by new investor Vivo Capital. Existing investors Temasek Holdings, Lilly Asia Ventures, OrbiMed and King Star Med LP are also participating.

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"We are very pleased to expand our investor base with support from a high caliber consortium," said Dr. William Wei Cao, founder, Chairman, and CEO of Gracell, "Our passion is to bring transformative CAR-T cell therapies to a broader group of patients by developing products that are efficacious and can be made widely available."

Gracell was founded in 2017 with the mission to overcome the major industry challenges that persist for both autologous and allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy approaches. Gracell has developed two pioneering platforms—FasTCAR and TruUCAR. With FasTCAR, Gracell is able to deliver younger, less exhausted T cells for autologous cell therapies with greater potency and next-day manufacturing (22 to 36 hours). With TruUCAR, Gracell is able to derive T cells from non-HLA-matched healthy donors to generate allogeneic CAR-T cell therapies that are readily available off-the-shelf at lower cost for a broad patient base.

Leveraging its FasTCAR and TruUCAR platforms, Gracell is developing a pipeline of autologous and allogeneic cell therapy candidates with the potential to treat both hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Currently, Gracell’s lead FasTCAR autologous product candidate, GC012F, is being studied in an ongoing investigator-initiated Phase 1 trial in China for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (r/r MM). Its lead TruUCAR allogeneic product candidate, GC027, is being studied in an ongoing investigator-initiated Phase 1 trial in China for the treatment of relapsed or refractory T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (r/r T-ALL).

Proceeds from the round will be used to fund internal research and development and further advance current clinical programs. Jefferies and Cooley advised in the transaction.