Ultivue and Indivumed Partner for Research and Drug Development in Personalized Oncology

On November 18, 2020 Ultivue and Indivumed reported that the two companies have entered into a collaborative partnership to further accelerate research and drug development in the area of personalized oncology (Press release, Ultivue, NOV 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234571361]).

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The deal links Indivumed’s vast array of standardized and fully comparable tissue biospecimens and analytical experience in IHC technology with Ultivue’s InSituPlex platform for high-throughput multiplex immunofluorescence. Ultivue’s standardized assay development for whole tissue phenotyping, when combined with Indivumed’s multi-omics oncology tissue biobank and capabilities to perform IHC multiplex assays, will enable deeper insights into tumor biology, unveiling complex mechanisms of cancer.

"By bringing Ultivue’s technology and expertise into our workflow, we’re giving our customers access to the contextual profiling of key cellular phenotypes," says Prof. Dr. Hartmut Juhl, founder and CEO of Indivumed. "The data that can now be extracted from these valuable assets in our repository can support the full characterization of samples for biomarker and target discovery, drug development, clinical trials, and individualized therapy research. It will complete our offer in combination with the existing broad menu of IHC assays and end-to-end service"

Cambridge-based UItivue’s InSituPlex multiplexing technology is designed for fast and comprehensive exploration of biologically-relevant markers in tissue samples.

"InSituPlex is built to derive more biologically-relevant data from patient tissue samples at scale," notes Jacques Corriveau, President and CEO of Ultivue. "By providing Indivumed with this capability and complementing its extensive biospecimen resources, we can enable researchers to rapidly assess the clinical utility of tissue biomarkers to increase the success of clinical trials in the I/O space."

Greenwich LifeSciences Announces Publication of Positive Phase IIb Clinical Trial Data for GP2, Its Lead Drug Candidate for the Prevention of Recurring Breast Cancer

On November 18, 2020 Greenwich LifeSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GLSI) (the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of GP2, an immunotherapy to prevent breast cancer recurrences in patients who have previously undergone surgery, reported the publication of an abstract at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) (Press release, Greenwich LifeSciences, NOV 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234571360]). The abstract will be displayed as a poster on Wednesday, December 9, 2020 in a virtual format.

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The study met all of its clinical endpoints for HER2/neu 3+ patients, concluding that the first 6 intradermal injections of GP2+GM-CSF safely elicited a potent immune response and reduced recurrence rates to 0% in HER2/neu 3+ patients, who received a standard course of trastuzumab after surgery, and this reduction of recurrence rate was maintained over the gold standard of 5 years of follow-up. A pivotal Phase III trial is being initiated to treat HER2/neu 3+ patients in the neoadjuvant setting. GP2 may also be effective when used in parallel to trastuzumab based therapeutics or in combination with trastuzumab based therapeutics in HER2/neu 1-2+ or other HER2/neu expressing cancers.

Snehal Patel, CEO of Greenwich LifeSciences, commented, "Approximately 50% of recurring patients do not respond to Herceptin or Kadcyla and still recur with metastatic breast cancer and a poor prognosis, where approximately 80-85% of recurring patients do not survive."

"The publication of this abstract shows that we met all of the endpoints for our Phase IIb clinical trial for HER2/neu 3+ patients, including safety, where no serious adverse events were observed. By substantially reducing the recurrence rate of the non-responders, we are addressing a large unmet need of women. If we are successful in reproducing our Phase IIb clinical trial data in a Phase III clinical trial, we could make a major impact in reducing metastatic breast cancer recurrence in this patient population, potentially saving thousands of lives per year. We are excited to begin our Phase III clinical trial."

"Based on our analysis of the potential market in our IPO prospectus, GP2 could initially treat 17,000 newly diagnosed patients per year in the US or approximately 50% of the Herceptin adjuvant market of $2-3 billion, and could expand to 2.4x that of the Herceptin market through additional Phase II trials and indications, reaching a potential peak revenue exceeding $5 billion. Not included in these estimates are the 3 million breast cancer survivors in the US of whom 25% are HER2/neu 3+. These survivors could also be candidates for a safe and effective preventative therapy," Patel concluded.

The abstract highlights the final 5 year follow-up efficacy and demographic data across all patient populations from the completed prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blinded, multicenter, Phase IIb clinical trial evaluating the reduction of recurrences. The poster presentation includes the disease-free survival curves for both HER2/neu 3+ and HER2/neu 1-2+ patient populations, including the demographics for stage of cancer, hormone receptor status, node status, and prior treatment with chemotherapy, radiation, endocrine therapy, or trastuzumab.

This 168 patient (ITT: n=180) basket trial across 16 clinical sites explored 96 HER2/neu 3+ patients, who received a standard course of trastuzumab after surgery and subsequently completed the first 6 intradermal injections or placebo, starting GP2 treatment at median 17.1 months after surgery, and 72 HER2/neu 1-2+ patients, who did not receive trastuzumab after surgery and subsequently completed the first 6 intradermal injections or placebo, starting the GP2 treatment at median 10.8 months after surgery.

Since GP2 is synergistic with trastuzumab, and the HER2/neu 1-2+ patients did not receive trastuzumab, it was prespecified to compare recurrence rates ITT versus per protocol in these 2 distinct, independently reported populations, excluding those patients who did not complete the first 6 intradermal injections. GP2 was shown to be well tolerated with no SAEs and elicited a potent immune response measured by local skin tests and immunological assays, which suggest peak immunity is reached at 6 months upon completion of the first 6 intradermal injections.

After 5 years of follow-up, the Kaplan-Meier estimated 5-year DFS rate in the 46 HER2/neu 3+ patients treated with GP2+GM-CSF, if the patient completed the first 6 intradermal injections, was 100% versus 89.4% (95% CI:76.2, 95.5%) in the 50 placebo patients treated with GM-CSF (p = 0.0338). The treated versus placebo HER2/neu 3+ patients were well-matched, where approximately 53% were stage T1, 41% were stages T2-T4, 55% were node positive, 58% were HR positive and received endocrine therapy, 77% received adjuvant radiation, 77% received adjuvant chemotherapy, and 89% received trastuzumab. There was no benefit to GP2 treatment in the HER2/neu 1-2+ patients where trastuzumab was not administered.

Abstract PS10-23 is entitled: Five year median follow-up data from a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blinded, multicenter, Phase IIb study evaluating the reduction of recurrences using HER2/neu peptide GP2 + GM-CSF vs. GM-CSF alone after adjuvant trastuzumab in HER2/neu positive women with operable breast cancer. The full abstract can be viewed here on page 654.

About SABCS

The 43rd annual SABCS has grown to be the industry’s premier breast cancer conference for basic, translational, and clinical cancer research professionals. It is well-known for presenting the latest breast cancer data from all over the world. More than 7,500 health care professionals from more than 90 countries attend annually. Baylor College of Medicine became a joint sponsor of SABCS in 2005. The Cancer Therapy & Research Center at UT Health Science Center San Antonio and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) began collaborations with SABCS in 2007. For more information, please visit the conference website at: View Source

About Breast Cancer and HER2/neu Positivity

One in eight U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over her lifetime, with approximately 266,000 new breast cancer patients and 3.1 million breast cancer survivors in 2018. HER2/neu (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) protein is a cell surface receptor protein that is expressed in a variety of common cancers, including in 75% of breast cancers at low (1+), intermediate (2+), and high (3+ or over-expressor) levels.

Caribou Biosciences Announces Licensing Agreement for scFvs Targeting CD371 to Enable Development of Allogeneic Cell Therapies

On November 18, 2020 Caribou Biosciences, Inc., a leading clinical-stage CRISPR genome editing biotechnology company, reported the execution of an exclusive license agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) under which Caribou has rights to fully human anti-CD371 scFvs and intellectual property related thereto in the field of allogeneic CD371-targeted cell therapies including CAR-T, CAR-NK, or iPSC-derived cell products. The anti-CD371 scFvs were developed in the laboratory of Renier Brentjens, M.D., Ph.D. at MSK in collaboration with the Tri-Institutional Therapeutic Discovery Institute (Tri-I TDI) (Press release, Caribou Biosciences, NOV 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234571359]). Tri-I TDI is a non-profit drug discovery company wholly owned by MSK, Weill Cornell Medicine, and The Rockefeller University (www.tritdi.org). MSK has the sole responsibility for licensing these scFvs and the related intellectual property for commercialization.

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"CD371, also known as CLL-1, is an attractive target for both acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) due to its expression on these myeloid cancer cells, its enrichment in leukemic stem cells, and its absence on hematopoietic stem cells," said Steven Kanner, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Caribou. "Preclinical studies at MSK have demonstrated the antitumor efficacy of targeting CD371 for AML using these human scFvs in CAR-Ts."

In-licensing these anti-CD371 scFvs further expands Caribou’s pipeline of allogeneic cell therapies for hematological malignancies. CB-010, Caribou’s lead allogeneic CAR-T program, targets CD19 and has been cleared by the FDA for clinical evaluation. CB-011, Caribou’s second allogeneic CAR-T therapy, targets BCMA. Caribou’s next-generation genome editing technologies enable high efficiency and specificity multiplex engineering, which is critical for the manufacture of CB-010 and CB-011. Caribou implements multiple strategies to boost CAR-T cell persistence to overcome T cell exhaustion and prevent rapid immune-mediated clearance.

"The opportunity to exclusively access fully human CD371-specific antibody fragments is exciting and we look forward to utilizing them to develop allogeneic cell therapies to treat AML and/or MDS," said Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Caribou. "The combination of these scFvs and Caribou’s next-generation genome editing platform is a promising approach to addressing these difficult-to-treat myeloid malignancies with significant unmet medical need."

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Personalis, Inc. to Present at EACR Liquid Biopsies Virtual Event

On November 18, 2020 Personalis, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSNL), a leader in advanced genomics for population sequencing and cancer, reported that the company will participate in the EACR Liquid Biopsies Virtual Event, November 18-19, including a poster presentation and satellite symposia (Press release, Personalis, NOV 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234571358]).

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The company will showcase both their platforms, ImmunoID NeXT and NeXT Liquid Biopsy.

ImmunoID NeXT is the first platform to enable comprehensive analysis of both a tumor and its immune microenvironment from a single sample, thus maximizing the biological information that can be generated from a precious tumor specimen.

NeXT Liquid Biopsy, a first-of-its-kind, high-performance exome-wide liquid biopsy assay, provides a unique ability to evaluate the cancer ecosystem and advance the development of next-generation therapies. While solid tumor biopsies remain the standard for the interrogation of the cancer genome, the advent of liquid biopsies has demonstrated there can be more to a cancer’s genotypic profile than that found in a single tissue biopsy. Therefore, the combination of NeXT Liquid Biopsy and ImmunoID NeXT delivers the most comprehensive view of a cancer’s mutational landscape by evaluating both the tissue and blood. NeXT Liquid Biopsy enables investigation into key applications such as spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the tumor, clonal evolution and tumor dynamics in response to therapies, and mechanisms of acquired resistance. In this presentation, we’ll highlight data demonstrating the genomic profiling and assay performance enabled by NeXT Liquid Biopsy through the evaluation of reference standards and patient samples.

Following are details for the Personalis presentations.

Scientific Poster Presentation

Poster Number


Title & Presenter


Dates

40


Sensitive detection and monitoring of genetic alterations in circulating cfDNA with an enhanced whole-exome approach
Presenter: Simo V. Zhang, PhD


NOV 18-19 | Online

Following are details of an industry-sponsored symposium which will be presented at the meeting.

Satellite Symposia

Title


Title & Presenter


Dates

Sponsored Symposia


NeXT Liquid Biopsy, A High Performance, Exome-Wide Liquid Biopsy Assay to Study Tumor Dynamics
Presenters: Erin N. Newburn, PhD and Dan Norton, MBA


NOV 18-19 | On Demand

Foundation Medicine Enters into Patent Licensing and Technology Agreement with TwinStrand Biosciences

On November 18, 2020 Foundation Medicine reported it has entered into a non-exclusive agreement to license two foundational patent families from TwinStrand Biosciences, a next-generation DNA sequencing technology company based in Seattle (Press release, Foundation Medicine, NOV 18, 2020, View Source [SID1234571357]).

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The patented TwinStrand Duplex Sequencing technology is a biochemistry- and software-based platform that enables researchers and clinicians to detect faint signals of ultra-low frequency DNA mutations often obscured by technical noise.

"Advancing and improving patient care is our highest priority and we’re pleased to work with partners like TwinStrand who share this same goal," said Cindy Perettie, Foundation Medicine’s chief executive officer. "We look forward to expanding this agreement with TwinStrand to explore additional areas for future collaboration."

"We are delighted to partner with Foundation Medicine, a company that shares our patient-centric mission of applying innovative science to advance cancer care globally," said Jesse Salk, MD, PhD, TwinStrand’s chief executive officer. "We are excited to help power Foundation Medicine’s commitment to delivering the highest quality data and genomic insights to physicians and their patients."