On April 15, 2021 Alchemab Therapeutics, a biotech company developing novel products for patients with hard-to-treat diseases by harnessing the power of naturally protective antibodies, reported the completion of a £60 million ($82 million) Series A financing round (Press release, Alchemab Therapeutics, APR 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234578119]).

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The international investment syndicate is led by RA Capital Management, with participation from Lightstone Ventures, Data Collective VC (DCVC), DHVC, SV Health Investors and the Dementia Discovery Fund. The company was created by SV Health Investors who led the Seed round in 2019.

The proceeds will be used to advance Alchemab’s unique target-agnostic drug discovery platform. The approach interrogates the entire antibody repertoires of individuals from well-defined groups who show unexpected resistance to disease despite genetic disposition or other risk factors predicative of a poor prognosis. Using insights gained, Alchemab can identify naturally protective antibodies with therapeutic potential. Alchemab’s primary focus is the development of novel therapeutics for hard-to-treat neurodegenerative diseases and cancers, and the Company currently has several programs at the preclinical stage.

Alchemab’s approach was developed with support from scientific founders at Oxford University, Johns Hopkins University and Mount Sinai Hospital. Alchemab is amongst the first commercial group to access Illumina’s Cambridge, UK Accelerator.

"Our aim is to become a major player in the identification of novel targets and antibodies in the areas of neurodegeneration and cancer," noted Alex Leech, CEO at Alchemab. "The substantial financial commitment by this high-caliber group of US and European investors is a strong endorsement of our science and team."

His colleague and co-founder, Dr Jane Osbourn OBE, CSO at Alchemab, added: "Our approach to understanding the natural immunological response to disease and why some people are able to stay well has huge potential to identify antibody therapies across a range of indications. The Series A financing offers a great opportunity to accelerate our efforts to positively impact the lives of patients.

Dr Houman Ashrafian, Managing Partner at SV Health Investors, commented: "Alchemab is a brilliant company driven by science. The Company combines elements of traditional drug discovery techniques with advanced analytics, and in doing so turns the conventional biotech model upside down."

Dr Andrew Levin, Managing Director at RA Capital, added: "It is a privilege to work with this exceptional team. Alex, Jane and the scientists at Alchemab are offering a truly innovative, disease-agnostic approach that we believe has great potential for the development of novel therapeutics."

Last month, Alchemab announced the award of an Innovate UK grant to support the development of a novel disease-modifying antibody therapy for Huntington’s disease, in collaboration with the Medicines Discovery Catapult.

On April 15, 2021 Bioneer reported that we will be participating in the Nordic Life Science Days 2021, from April 20th to 23rd (Press release, Bioneer, APR 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234578116]).

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Nordic Life Science Days is the largest Nordic partnering conference dedicated to the life science industry. This year the event will be in a digital format, where Bioneer will have a virtual booth, where you will find all information about our company and our high quality service.

You can book a meeting with our Sales and Business Development Manager Lovisa Sunesson ([email protected]) on the Nordic Life Science Days platform or contact us via the available online chat.

Moreover you will be able to hear more about our company and specifically our disease modelling in our company presentation featuring Christian Clausen, Chief Scientific Officer at Bioneer.

On April 15, 2021 Alligator Bioscience (Nasdaq Stockholm: ATORX) reported that it has entered into a joint research collaboration with MacroGenics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGNX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer (Press release, Alligator Bioscience, APR 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234578105]). The research collaboration will lead to the expansion of Alligator’s proprietary patient specific immunotherapy Neo-X-Prime by incorporating MacroGenics’ proprietary DART and TRIDENT multi-specific platforms against two undisclosed targets.

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Under the joint research collaboration agreement, which covers activities from candidate drug generation up until IND-enabling studies, each company will be responsible for its own costs. The parties may continue further development of the resulting bispecific molecule under a separate co-development collaboration and licensing agreement.

"We are truly excited to start this collaboration with MacroGenics, validating the Neo-X-Prime drug concept. The aim is to create a drug candidate that takes advantage of a unique mechanism of a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer. We look forward to working collaboratively to expand the Neo-X-Prime concept with MacroGenics’ antibodies, their proven DART technology, and extensive capabilities," says Malin Carlsson, interim CEO of Alligator Bioscience.

The Chairman of Alligator Bioscience, Peter Benson stated "MacroGenics is widely viewed as a leader in the antibody field as evidenced by their extensive pipeline of antibody-based molecules in clinical testing that are based on various platform technologies. Furthermore, MacroGenics’ capabilities are an excellent fit with Alligator’s strategy to develop next generation tumor specific immunotherapies to improve the lives of cancer patients."

Neo-X-Prime is a drug concept for more personalized immunotherapy, launched by Alligator in 2020. The concept builds on bispecific antibodies that physically link circulating tumor material to the immune system, to allow neoantigen-specific T cell priming with potential for superior anti-tumor efficacy.

MacroGenics’ DART and TRIDENT multi-specific platforms enable the creation of potential medicines comprised of a single molecule designed to simultaneously bind to two or more targets, each with antibody-like specificity, with the goal of creating a more significant biological effect.

On April 15, 2021 IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDYA), a synthetic lethality-focused precision medicine oncology company committed to the discovery and development of targeted therapeutics, reported First-Patient-In (FPI) in the Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating IDE397 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04794699) (Press release, Ideaya Biosciences, APR 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234578104]). IDE397 is a potential best-in-class methionine adenosyltransferase 2a (MAT2A) inhibitor being evaluated in cancer patients harboring methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP) deletion.

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"We are excited to dose the first patient in the evaluation of IDE397 targeting MAT2A in MTAP deletion patients. IDE397 has the potential to be broadly impactful for cancer patients with MTAP deletion, which is prevalent in approximately 15% of solid tumors," said Anthony Tolcher, M.D., Director of Clinical Research, Founder and CEO at NEXT Oncology.

IDE397 is an internally discovered potential best-in-class MAT2A inhibitor that received IND-clearance from the U.S. FDA to initiate Phase 1 in Q1 2021. As reported at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2021, IDE397 demonstrated significant single-agent anti-tumor activity in a 40-plus MTAP-deletion study, including tumor regressions, across major solid tumor types, such as NSCLC, gastric, esophageal, bladder, among others. In addition to IDE397 monotherapy, IDEAYA is evaluating multiple potential combinations preclinically, including in the PRMT pathway and with taxanes, among others. Multiple clinical trial sites are being activated across the U.S. to evaluate IDE397 clinically, and MTAP-deletion patients will be identified for study enrollment through commercially available Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) platforms and with an MTAP-IHC assay which IDEAYA has developed in collaboration with Ventana.

"We believe that IDE397 is a differentiated small molecule MAT2A inhibitor, with the potential for monotherapy clinical development in genetically defined MTAP deleted cancers," said Matthew Maurer, M.D., Vice President, Head of Clinical Oncology and Medical Affairs at IDEAYA Biosciences. "Dosing our first patient for IDE397 in our Phase 1 MTAP-deletion solid tumor trial is a substantial company milestone. IDEAYA is targeting to advance our next two Synthetic Lethality programs in PARG and Pol Theta to development candidate stage in 2021 and advancing our internal pipeline in the MTAP-deletion synthetic lethality space to complement our Phase 1 MAT2A inhibitor IDE397," said Yujiro S. Hata, President and Chief Executive Officer, IDEAYA Biosciences.

On April 15, 2021 Second Genome, a tech-enabled biotechnology company that extracts microbial genetic insights to make transformational precision therapies and biomarkers, reported that Karim Dabbagh, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, will present and participate in a fireside chat at the virtual Jefferies Microbiome-Based Therapeutics Summit on April 22, 2021 (Press release, Second Genome, APR 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234578103]).

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The prerecorded presentation and fireside chat will be available on Thursday, April 22, 2021, at 8:00 a.m. ET and can be accessed by visiting the "News" section of the Company’s website at www.secondgenome.com and selecting the Events tab on the News page. A replay of the webcast will be archived there following the presentation date.