On June 8, 2021 Ocuphire Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: OCUP), a clinical-stage ophthalmic biopharmaceutical company focused on development and commercialization of therapies for the treatment of several eye disorders, reported the closing of its previously announced registered direct offering of 3,076,923 shares of the Company’s common stock (the "Shares") and warrants to purchase 1,538,461 shares of the Company’s common stock (the "Warrants", and together with the Shares, the "Securities") at a combined purchase price of $4.875 per one Share and 0.5 Warrant in an offering priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules (Press release, Rexahn, JUN 8, 2021, View Source [SID1234583708]). The Warrants have an exercise price of $6.09 per share, will be exercisable on issuance date, and will expire five years following the issuance date. Gross proceeds from the offering were approximately $15 million, before deducting placement agent fees and other offering expenses payable by the Company.

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Lincoln Park Capital Fund, LLC was the lead investor in the offering. Additional investors participating in the offering included Ayrton Capital, District 2 Capital Fund LP, Altium Capital, and other new and existing institutional healthcare investors.

A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners acted as sole placement agent for the offering.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to cover clinical (2nd Phase 3 trial and pediatric trial), manufacturing (including commercial batches) and regulatory costs associated with the submission of a New Drug Application for Nyxol for the reversal of pharmacologically-induced mydriasis, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes. The Company expects that this offering combined with cash on hand will fund operations until late 2022.

This offering was made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-252715) previously filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). A final prospectus supplement describing the terms of the proposed offering has been filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s website located at View Source Electronic copies of the prospectus supplement may be obtained from A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners, 590 Madison Avenue, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10022, or by telephone at (212) 624-2060, or by email at [email protected].

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

On June 8, 2021 Sonnet BioTherapeutics Holdings, Inc., (NASDAQ:SONN) a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative targeted biologic drugs, reported that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S. Patent No. 11,028,166 entitled, "Albumin Domain Fusion Proteins" (Press release, Sonnet BioTherapeutics, JUN 8, 2021, View Source [SID1234583707]). The patent covers Sonnet’s Fully Human Albumin Binding (FHAB) technology and includes therapeutic fusion proteins that utilize FHAB for tumor targeting and retention and provide extended pharmacokinetics (PK), and the patent carries a term effective until March 2039.

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"This intellectual property approval is an important milestone that provides significant differentiation from any existing or emerging competitive technologies that may leverage Human Serum Albumin," said Pankaj Mohan, Ph.D., Founder and CEO. "This represents the strategic foundation underpinning our product pipeline roadmap and provides important validation for our FHAB platform. Through the development of our product pipeline, we are very excited to extend our unique and patent-protected technology to patients."

Sonnet’s FHAB platform consists of a single, fully human construct of a FHAB antibody fragment that has high affinity to bind to human albumin. The platform provides an off-the-shelf lock and load opportunity to rapidly develop numerous therapeutic biologics.

John Cini, Co-Founder and CSO, commented "The FHAB platform technology endows all Sonnet pipeline assets with a mono- or bi-specific mechanism of action. When tested in vivo against numerous wild type cytokines, Sonnet’s FHAB-derived candidates have reproducibly shown improved efficacy. Based on a linear, flexible structure, FHAB displays improved penetration and retention in the TME, and enhanced payload delivery to the tumor, via both passive and active transport mechanisms, as well as extended pharmacokinetics."

On June 8, 2021 ONK Therapeutics Ltd, an innovative natural killer (NK) cell therapy company, reported that it has been awarded an Innovation Partnership Programme (IPP) grant by Enterprise Ireland (EI) to fund collaborative research at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, led by Dr. David Finlay to optimize the metabolism and engineering of NK cells for improved cancer therapies (Press release, ONK Therapeutics, JUN 8, 2021, View Source [SID1234583706]).

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Dr. Finlay, Associate Prof. in Immunometabolism in the Schools of Biochemistry and Immunology, and Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, at Trinity College Dublin is a world-leading expert in NK cell metabolism. His group was the first to characterize cellular metabolic pathways in NK cells (reviewed in (1)) and to demonstrate the importance of NK cellular metabolism for the cytotoxic anti-tumor functions of these cells (2).

Active research is ongoing to optimize the efficacy of NK cell therapies against solid tumors by addressing the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), where NK cell metabolism is impaired due to low glucose levels, oxygen deprivation (hypoxia), presence of inhibitory cytokines, and the higher concentration of tumor-derived metabolic end products, such as lactate.

To date, such improvement strategies to boost the efficacy of NK cells in the tumor microenvironment of solid cancers have centred on adding cytokines and other factors.

"We are taking a completely novel approach by addressing NK cell metabolism from the inside out, fundamentally engineering NK cells to better treat cancer by increasing their resistance to the adverse metabolic conditions generated by tumors," said Prof. Michael O’Dwyer, founder and CSO at ONK Therapeutics. "In working with Dr. Finlay, we are collaborating with the pioneering expert in the field of NK immunometabolism."

Under the terms of the collaboration, Trinity College Dublin retains any intellectual property (IP) arising out of the research collaboration, with ONK Therapeutics having an exclusive option to license the IP.

"In order to understand why cellular cancer immunotherapies are not effective in all cancer patients, scientists are actively trying to identify why certain patients respond and some do not and why some types of cancer can be successfully treated while others cannot. One emerging reason is that tumors can create metabolically unfavorable environments that might impact the effectiveness of immune cell therapies. My laboratory has the foremost expertise in NK cell metabolism placing us in a very strong position to address this challenge," said Dr. Finlay.

"Manipulating NK cell metabolism to enhance anti-cancer function is completely novel and is only possible based on our discoveries over the past five years," he said. "Our goal is to discover new targets within NK cells to be edited through CRISPR deletion or overexpression strategies. Detailed evaluation of the resistance of these cells to the adverse environments generated by tumors should support the development of enhanced NK cell therapies. It is an innovative approach to developing improved cellular therapies to treat cancer, in particular solid tumors."

Lawrence Lee, Manager, Innovation Partnership Programme Enterprise Ireland, said, "We are delighted to support this innovative research that has the potential to generate real and tangible benefits for cancer patients in Ireland and across the globe. The project is aligned with Enterprise Ireland’s strategic goal of supporting world-leading research in Ireland and fostering relationships between industry and academic partners. Research initiatives such as this have the capacity to further advance Ireland’s international research reputation and lay the foundations for the jobs of the future.

The Enterprise Ireland funding(3) covers 80% of the €373,295 project costs, with the industry partner, ONK Therapeutics providing €75,000 (20%) of the project costs. Trinity College Dublin will be recruiting two additional post-doctoral scientists into Dr. Finlay’s group over the two years of the project.

Chris Nowers, CEO of ONK Therapeutics, said, "We are highly ambitious in our goal to become a world-leading engineered NK cell therapy company that not only treats, but ultimately cures cancer. Our academic partnerships will deliver rich research insights and reinforce our own expertise as we aim to deliver new therapeutic options for patients in need."

1. O’Brien KL., Finlay, DK. (2019) Immunometabolism and Natural Killer cell responses. Nature Reviews Immunology, May;19(5):282-290. doi: 10.1038/s41577-019-0139-2

2. Assmann N, O’Brien KL, Donnelly RP, Dyck L, Zaiatz-Bittencourt V, Loftus RM, Heinrich P, Oefner PJ, Lynch L, Gardiner CM, Dettmer K, Finlay DK. (2017) Srebp-controlled glucose metabolism is essential for NK cell functional responses. Nature Immunology. Sep 18. doi: 10.1038/ni.3838

3. IP 2021 0976 – ‘Metabolic reprogramming and engineering of NK cells for improved cancer therapy’

On June 8, 2021 SHINE Medical Technologies LLC reported that it has entered a multi-year contract with the University of Missouri Research Reactor, or MURR, for irradiation of ytterbium-176, the starting material for the production of lutetium-177 (Lu-177), a therapeutic isotope showing great promise for improving patient outcomes for a range of cancers (Press release, Shine Medical Technologies, JUN 8, 2021, View Source;pk_kwd=shine-medical-announces-agreement-with-murr [SID1234583705]).

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"MURR’s experienced team and reliable reactor make its irradiation services invaluable to SHINE as we commercialize our Lu-177," said Katrina Pitas, vice president and general manager of SHINE Therapeutics. "MURR’s high neutron flux will help us produce all the non-carrier-added Lu-177 we need to serve our rapidly growing customer base, treating a wide variety of cancers."

MURR is located on the campus of the University of Missouri at Columbia.

"The MURR team looks forward to serving SHINE as it commercializes Lu-177," said Ken Brooks, associate director for business development at the MU Research Reactor. "For more than 50 years, MURR has served researchers and industry partners around the world."

Lu-177 is a low-energy beta-particle emitter that works by directly irradiating cancer cells after being delivered to the cancer site by a targeting molecule. Energy from Lu-177 only travels a short distance once it reaches cancer cells, enabling the isotope to destroy those cells with little damage to surrounding tissue. Lu-177-based therapy is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of neuroendocrine cancers. It also shows promise for the treatment of metastatic prostate, breast, liver, brain and other cancers.

"The need for more effective cancer treatments continues to grow, particularly for those patients with metastatic or late-stage cancers," said Greg Piefer, SHINE’s founder and CEO. "We can help provide hope to those patients with a highly precise treatment that produces little damage in the tissue around the treatment site. SHINE expects to play a significant role in ensuring that patients around the world have access to Lu-177."

SHINE will host a booth in the SNMMI 2021 Virtual Exhibit Hall. The exhibit hall will be open June 11-15 as part of SNMMI’s Annual Meeting. The company will highlight its lutetium-177 product and progress on the commercialization of molybdenum-99.

On June 8, 2021 Clarity Pharmaceuticals, a clinical stage radiopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious disease, reported that its clinical trial of 64/67Cu SARTATE for paediatric patients with neuroblastoma has been expanded to include five sites in the U.S (Press release, Clarity Pharmaceuticals, JUN 8, 2021, View Source [SID1234583704]).

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"We are very excited to expand into additional clinical sites which are now open for recruitment in the trial of Clarity’s lead product in neuroblastoma," commented Dr Alan Taylor, Clarity’s Executive Chairman. "Some of the initial data we have received to date from our first clinical site has been shared at one of the industry’s leading conferences, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) Mid-Winter Meeting 2021 and was very well received. We look forward to continuing the 64/67Cu SARTATE clinical trial in this important patient population in some of the leading cancer centres in the U.S."

The 67Cu SARTATE trial is a Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy administered to paediatric patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. It is a multi-centre, dose-escalation, open label, non-randomised, Phase 1/2a theranostic clinical trial with the following confirmed clinical sites:1

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (MSK);
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre;
Medical University of South Carolina;
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre; and
University of Wisconsin.
Neuroblastoma most often occurs in children younger than 5 years of age and presents when the tumour grows and causes symptoms. It is the most common type of cancer to be diagnosed in the first year of life and accounts for around 15% of paediatric cancer mortality.2 High-risk neuroblastoma accounts for approximately 45% of all neuroblastoma cases. Patients with high-risk neuroblastoma have the lowest 5-year survival rates at 40%-50%.3

Dr Taylor said: "We are very pleased to have received strong support on the development of 64/67Cu SARTATE for neuroblastoma to date from numerous supporters, such as the five clinical sites, Clarity’s team, our collaborators, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in granting both diagnostic 64Cu SARTATE and therapeutic 67Cu SARTATE products Orphan Drug Designations and Rare Paediatric Disease Designations. We believe this highlights the importance of SARTATE development in this important patient population to improve the prognosis of children with high-risk neuroblastoma, where current treatment strategies are limited. We are looking forward to further progressing this trial at five clinical sites and getting closer to our ultimate goal of better treating children and adults with cancer."

References
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04023331
Nadja C. Colon and Dai H. Chung 2011, "Neuroblastoma", Advances in Pediatrics, <View Source>
Valeria Smith and Jennifer Foster 2018, "High Risk Neuroblastoma Treatment Review", Children, <View Source>