On October 14, 2021 CytRx Corporation (OTCQB: CYTR) ("CytRx" or the "Company"), a specialized biopharmaceutical company focused on research and development for the oncology and neurodegenerative disease categories, highlighted ImmunityBio, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: IBRX) ("ImmunityBio") reported completion of enrollment in its Phase 2 trial studying a combination immunotherapy (Nant Cancer Vaccine) – which includes aldoxorubicin – in advanced metastatic pancreatic cancer (Press release, CytRx, OCT 14, 2021, View Source [SID1234591251]).

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CytRx out-licensed global development, manufacturing and commercialization rights for aldoxorubicin to ImmunityBio in 2017. The Company has an agreement with ImmunityBio that can yield up to $343 million in potential milestone payments as well as prospective royalties on sales of aldoxorubicin.

According to ImmunityBio, the majority of participants in the study to date remain on therapy and 90% (43/48) of the evaluable patients have exceeded the approximately two-month historical survival rate. Of the 48 evaluable patients, 23 (48%) had extremely advanced disease upon enrollment (i.e. had progressed after three to six prior lines of therapy) and, of these patients, 20 out of 23 (87%) have exceeded historical survival rates. On the strength of this early data and significant unmet medical need, ImmunityBio has submitted an amendment to increase enrollment in Cohort C.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., Founder and Global Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of ImmunityBio, commented:

"Patients with advanced metastatic pancreatic cancer who have failed all standards of care have very grave prognoses with few treatment options. This study was to explore if the Nant Cancer Vaccine could address this unmet need. It is gratifying to note that patients in this study, who had progressed after up to six lines of prior therapy, have exceeded historical survival rates despite having very advanced pancreatic cancer upon enrollment. Achieving robust enrollment in this patient group and early promising efficacy evidence are important milestones in ImmunityBio’s effort to develop this therapeutic with the potential to improve survival rates and provide a replacement for toxic chemotherapy. As the historical survival rate for third- to sixth-line pancreatic cancer patients is approximately two months, we are encouraged by this early data and have decided to open this cohort to more patients with advanced metastatic disease who have no further treatment options."

Steven A. Kriegsman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CytRx, commented:

"With each of our licensing agreements, CytRx’s primary goal is to put greater energy and resources behind innovative clinical programs working to combat cancer and rare diseases. We are highly encouraged by ImmunityBio’s milestone achievement of robust enrollment in its QUILT-88 study and early evidence of promising efficacy of the Nant Cancer Vaccine, which includes our licensed aldoxorubicin drug, to treat severe cases of pancreatic cancer. We look forward to continuing to monitor the trial’s progress when mature data is released in Q1 2022, ahead of ImmunityBio’s plans to meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2022 to discuss the path for the approval of combination therapies for pancreatic cancer."

QUILT-88 Study Details

This Phase 2, randomized, three-cohort, open-label study will evaluate the comparative efficacy and overall safety of standard-of-care chemotherapy versus standard-of-care chemotherapy, in combination with PD-L1 t-haNK, Anktiva (N-803), and aldoxorubicin in subjects with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer (NCT04390399). Each treatment setting, as well as each first- and second-line or later maintenance treatment, will be evaluated independently as Cohorts A, B, and C, respectively, with Cohorts A and B having independent experimental and control arms. The study will initially enroll 298 subjects across all three cohorts. The primary objective of Cohorts A and B is progression-free survival (PFS) per RECIST V1.1, and the objective of Cohort C is overall survival (OS). Secondary objectives include initial safety and additional efficacy measures, including overall response rate (ORR), complete response (CR) rate, durability of response (DoR), disease control rate (DCR), and overall survival (OS).

Currently, three trial sites have been activated: Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Orange County, Calif., The Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Medicine in Los Angeles County, Calif., and Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which serves patients in the tri-state area (Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota).

On October 14, 2021 Pillar Biosciences, an innovative, next-generation sequencing (NGS) solutions, in-vitro diagnostics company, reported that it has entered into an agreement with Labcorp (NYSE: LH), a leading global life sciences company, to provide genomic testing for people with cancer (Press release, Pillar Biosciences, OCT 14, 2021, View Source [SID1234591250]).

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Under the agreement, Pillar Biosciences will provide the oncoReveal Essential Myeloproliferative Neoplasm (MPN) panel. Using NGS, the test simultaneously measures for DNA mutations across multiple genes.

"Collaborating with Labcorp makes available a targeted NGS testing solution to accurately diagnose and monitor people with cancer who are suspected of having myeloproliferative neoplasms, which are diseases of the blood and bone marrow," said Laura Beggrow, Chief Business Officer at Pillar Biosciences. "This collaboration presents a broad market opportunity and bolsters our mission to make precision medicine accessible to all by providing high-quality, affordable specialty NGS testing capabilities."

"Our collaboration with Pillar Biosciences allows us to provide an accurate, efficient and scalable solution to patients with blood and bone marrow diseases through a multiplex targeted gene panel," said Dr. Marcia Eisenberg, Chief Scientific Officer at Labcorp and a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Pillar Biosciences. "Offering this specialty oncology assay will enable patients and health care providers to make the most-informed and best-possible treatment decisions."

On October 14, 2021 MAIA Biotechnology, Inc., a targeted therapy, immuno-oncology company focused on developing potential first-in-class oncology drugs ("MAIA"), reported that it has raised an additional $6.2 million in an equity offering at $8/share (Press release, MAIA Biotechnology, OCT 14, 2021, View Source [SID1234591249]). The proceeds of the financing will advance the company’s programs and will support the initiation of a Phase 2 clinical trial (THIO-101) evaluating the administration of THIO followed by cemiplimab in patients with advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). The THIO-101 trial is expected to begin this year.

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"We are excited to have closed this latest financing round, which brings MAIA additional capital as we continue to advance our THIO program," said Vlad Vitoc, M.D., MAIA’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We appreciate the continued support of our high-quality investors who share our vision developing novel cancer therapies aimed at overcoming treatment resistant diseases."

About the Phase 2 Clinical Trial in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

This trial (THIO-101) will be the first to test THIO’s immune system activation by administering THIO in advance of administration of the checkpoint inhibitor (co-developed by Regeneron and Sanofi), potentially allowing for immune activation and PD-1 sensitivity to take effect. The trial will test the hypothesis that low doses of THIO administered prior to checkpoint inhibitor treatment will enhance and prolong immune response in patients with advanced NSCLC who previously did not respond or progressed after first-line treatment regimen containing a checkpoint inhibitor.

The THIO-101 trial will assess the safety, mechanistic activity and immune system activation of four THIO dose levels, each in separate arms. Each dosing arm will then be evaluated further for efficacy based on Overall Response Rate (ORR), Duration of Response (DoR), Progression Free Survival (PFS) and Overall Survival (OS). Additional patients may be recruited for further clinical evaluation in any of the THIO arms based on safety and clinical benefit. Each arm of the trial will enroll up to 41 evaluable patients.

About THIO

THIO (6-thio-dG, 6-thio-2’-deoxyguanosine) is a potentially first-in-class small molecule that, to our knowledge, is the only cancer telomere targeting agent currently in development. THIO is believed to selectively target telomerase-positive cancer cells, which account for more than 85% of human cancers. Data from pre-clinical studies showed that THIO’s activity was shown to be specific to tumor types with active telomerase, an enzyme that is silent in most healthy cells. Studies to date also showed that telomerase recognizes THIO and selectively incorporates it into the telomeres in tumor cells. Once incorporated, THIO compromises the telomere structure and function, leading to ‘uncapping’ of the chromosome ends, which results in rapid tumor cell death. Low doses of THIO, followed by anti-PD-L1 or anti-PD1 therapy, completely eliminated advanced tumors in pre-clinical models and produced cancer cell-specific immune memory, where the immune system continued to be active against the cancer cells after extended periods of time, with no additional treatment. These results support the hypothesis that demonstrate how the THIO-produced telomere stress increases innate sensing and adaptive anti-tumor immunity, and provides a strong rationale for sequentially combining telomere-targeted therapy with immunotherapy. THIO is investigational and has not been approved yet for any use by regulatory authorities.

About Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. It is estimated that, in 2020, more than 2.2 million new cases were diagnosed globally, including 228,000 new cases in the U.S. Approximately 85% of all lung cancers are NSCLC and an estimated 80% of these cases are telomerase positive. While immunotherapies have transformed advanced NSCLC treatment in recent years, there remains a significant unmet need to optimize treatment of patients and offer additional clinical options.

On October 14, 2021 Kojin Therapeutics Inc., a company developing new targeted therapeutics based on cell state and ferroptosis biology, reported the appointment of Luba Greenwood as Chief Executive Officer (Press release, Kojin Therapeutics, OCT 14, 2021, View Source [SID1234591248]). Greenwood, who has served on Kojin’s board of directors since June 2021, joins Kojin’s co-founder Vasanthi Viswanathan and Chief Scientific Officer Kay Ahn in leading the company’s vision and growing its women-led executive team.

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Greenwood is a leading figure in healthcare with vast experience as an executive, company builder, and investor in therapeutics, life sciences, and tech sectors. She has co-founded biotech and digital health companies in immunotherapy, women’s health, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the microbiome space, and as a life sciences and biotech expert, lectures at Harvard University in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Her leadership roles have spanned Roche, Google, and Pfizer and most recently Greenwood served as a Managing Partner at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s venture fund, Binney Street Capital, a venture arm she founded to further Dana-Farber’s mission of developing treatments for incurable cancers.

"With a focus on oncology, immunology, and neurology, I’ve had the privilege to access and witness the latest breakthrough advancements," said Luba Greenwood, CEO of Kojin Therapeutics. "From the outset, Kojin’s differentiated platform and modality stood apart, and I knew I wanted to be a part of this revolutionary science and the impact it will have on drug discovery. As a board member I was able to get to know Kojin’s approach and the incredible team behind it, and I’m honored to serve as CEO as we move forward and create transformative medicines for patients."

In June 2021, Kojin launched with a $60 Million Series A to accelerate its drug discovery platform based on its groundbreaking approach to cell state and ferroptosis biology to develop novel, targeted therapeutics. Since then, the company has accelerated its platform and partnerships with a focus on hard-to-treat cancers, immunology, and fibrosis.

"Luba has been a driving force behind Kojin’s mission and growth trajectory. She brings a collaborative leadership style that is especially valuable for early stage biotech companies bringing interdisciplinary science and technology together," said Stuart Schreiber, co-founder of Kojin Therapeutics. "We now have a very clear indication of where we will prioritize our platform and we’re thrilled to have Luba implementing this vision as she leads our talented team."

Greenwood is committed to advancing women in biotechnology and has been a recipient of several awards and honors for her work in the community, including the Science Club for Girls Catalyst Award for her commitment to advocating for women in science and technology.

"We’re incredibly proud to add Luba to our executive team, especially in an industry where chief women executives remain rare," said Vasanthi Viswanathan, co-founder and Head of Discovery Biology of Kojin Therapeutics. "Luba is an inspirational leader who personifies a winning combination of values, experience and perspective that will allow her to fully develop Kojin’s platform and partnering potential while simultaneously steering our programs into the clinic. It is a privilege to have a partner at the helm who so deeply believes in the founding mission of Kojin — transforming the lives of patients by developing a completely new category of therapeutics that work by modulating ferroptosis biology."

Kojin is focused on building out exceptional in-house biology and computational capabilities to rapidly advance its science. Since its launch, the company has more than doubled in size and will be moving into its own headquarters located in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood in February 2022. The company is tripling its machine learning efforts and actively looking to hire computational biologists and chemists.

On Sunday, October 17 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, Greenwood will be moderating a panel at HLTH 2021 to discuss investment trends in patient experience and engagement.

On October 14, 2021 Abalos Therapeutics reported an extension to its Series A funding round bringing the total raised in this round to EUR 43 million (USD 50 million) (Press release, Abalos Therapeutics, OCT 14, 2021, View Source [SID1234591247]). The extension was led by Seventure Partners with support from Coparion, Ventura BioMed Investors and Hx Bio Ventures as well as contributions from existing investors from the initial Series A round including Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), Gründerfonds Ruhr, NRW.BANK and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). The financing underscores the potential of Abalos’ differentiated immuno-virotherapy approach to generate a maximal immune response specifically targeted against a patient’s cancer and its metastases. The proceeds will enable the company to advance its first product candidate into a Phase 1/2 trial in multiple solid tumors including the expansion cohorts to demonstrate early signs of clinical efficacy as well as fund further pipeline expansion.

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"Since the closing of our initial Series A financing round, we have achieved significant progress in the development of our product candidates and built a leadership team of drug development and immuno-oncology experts that support our goal of bringing this unique therapeutic modality to cancer patients," said Dr. Marcus Kostka, CEO of Abalos Therapeutics. "We value this commitment from our new and current investors that will enable our lead arenavirus-based program to enter clinical evaluation with the goal of establishing clinical proof of concept."

"Abalos is developing a powerful new class of immuno-virotherapeutics to treat cancer. Their product candidates have the potential to treat a range of solid cancers and also to increase the effect of approved immuno-oncology drugs," said Annegret de Baey, Venture Partner at Seventure Partners.

"We are very excited to see such a distinct approach in the crowded immuno-oncology space and look forward to supporting the Abalos leadership team as they continue on the journey of developing a pipeline of candidates that could greatly improve the immune system’s ability to identify hard-to-treat tumors and elicit a long-term anti-tumor immune response," added Isabelle de Cremoux, CEO and Managing Partner at Seventure.

Abalos was launched in October 2019 to advance a technology platform that harnesses the unique features of the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), which specifically targets tumor cells. Through its proprietary Fast Evolution Platform, Abalos is generating variants with optimized anti-tumoral properties to trigger a highly precise and directed immune response that can be utilized for distant metastases and enable long-term disease control.

In conjunction with the closing of the Series A financing round extension, Annegret de Baey from Seventure Partners and Sebastian Pünzeler from Coparion will join Abalos’ Supervisory Board.