On April 13, 2021 Purple Biotech Ltd. ("Purple Biotech" ", or the "Company") (NASDAQ/TASE: PPBT), a clinical-stage company developing first-in-class, effective and durable therapies by overcoming tumor immune evasion and drug resistance, reported that additional preclinical data supporting the mechanism of action of NT219, a dual inhibitor, novel small molecule that simultaneously targets IRS1/2 and STAT3, were presented in a poster entitled "Adaptation of colorectal cancer cells to the brain microenvironment: The role of IRS2," at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2021 Annual Meeting (Press release, Purple Biotech, APR 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234577984]). These data update and expand on the results previously reported by the Company from its collaboration with Professor Ido Wolf, Head of the Oncology Division at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

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Colorectal cancer (CRC) represents the fourth most frequent cause of brain metastasis, which is the most common brain tumor. The study included an analysis of more than 16,000 human CRC local and metastasis samples, and revealed increased amplification of IRS2 in brain metastases.

In an in vitro system mimicking the brain microenvironment, IRS2-overexpressed CRC cells showed prolonged survival. Importantly, transcriptomic analysis demonstrated significant enrichment of the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) pathway by IRS2. CRC cells expressing IRS2 showed increased mitochondrial activity and glycolysis-independent viability. Inhibition of IRS2 using NT219 dose-dependently inhibited IRS2-expressing cells viability and OXPHOS genes expression.

The Wnt/β-catenin pathway was among the most significantly enriched pathways in the brain metastasis, as IRS2-expressing cells showed increased transcriptional activity of the β-catenin. In addition, NT219 decreased the transcriptional activity of β-catenin in IRS2-expressing CRC cells to a greater extent than AKT and PI3K inhibitors, and most significantly suggested relevance of IRS2 in activating β-catenin. It was further shown that 5-FU, a chemotherapy approved for treating CRC, elevated β-catenin expression, and that NT219 diminished both 5FU-induced and the basal level of the β-catenin expression. Utilizing an intracranial animal model, it was also demonstrated that while 5-FU alone had no significant effect, the combination of 5-FU and NT219 significantly inhibited the formation of brain metastasis and extended survival rates of the study mice.

"We are excited about these highly encouraging study results," said Bertrand Liang, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Purple Biotech. "These compelling data provide important insights regarding the role of IRS2 in promoting CRC brain metastasis, and suggest that novel agents such as NT219 have the potential to effectively inhibit the development of brain metastasis. Our ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical trial of NT219 as monotherapy for the treatment of solid tumors, followed by a dose escalation of NT219 in combination with cetuximab, an epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) blocking monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of recurrent and/or metastatic solid tumors and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck cancer, is proceeding with enrollment as planned and we continue to expect the availability of top-line data from the first part of this study in the second half of this year."

The poster presentation is available at View Source

On April 13, 2021 Zymeworks Inc. (NYSE:ZYME), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing multifunctional biotherapeutics, reported that the Company will present at the upcoming 2021 Bloom Burton Healthcare Investor Conferencetaking place April 20-21, 2021 (Press release, Zymeworks, APR 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234577982]).

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The Company’s presentation will be on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 11:30 a.m. ET.

Interested parties can access a live webcast of the presentation via a link from Zymeworks’ website at View Source, which will also host a recorded replay available afterwards.

On April 13, 2021 Zai Lab Limited (NASDAQ: ZLAB; HKEX: 9688) and Novocure (NASDAQ: NVCR) reported an update regarding its phase 3 pivotal LUNAR trial of Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) in stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following platinum failure (Press release, Zai Laboratory, APR 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234577981]). Following a routine review of the study by an independent data monitoring committee (DMC), Novocure was informed that the pre-specified interim analysis for the LUNAR trial would be accelerated given the length of accrual and the number of events observed, to date. The interim analysis included data from 210 patients accrued to the LUNAR trial through February 2021. After review of the interim analysis report, the DMC concluded that the LUNAR trial should continue with no evidence of increased systemic toxicity.

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The DMC also stated that it is likely unnecessary and possibly unethical for patients randomized to the control arm to continue accrual to 534 patients with 18 months follow-up. The DMC recommended a reduced sample size of approximately 276 patients with 12 months follow-up which it believes will provide sufficient overall power for both primary and secondary endpoints. The DMC recommended no other changes to the design of the trial. Novocure remains blinded to all data.

The primary endpoint of the LUNAR trial is superior overall survival when patients are treated with TTFields plus immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel versus immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel alone. The final analysis will also include an analysis of overall survival in the immune checkpoint inhibitor and docetaxel treatment subgroups.

Novocure has notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the DMC recommendations and of its intent to submit an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) supplement incorporating the recommended protocol adjustments.

"We are very pleased with the DMC recommendations, which we believe support the potential for TTFields to make a significant difference in treatment outcomes for patients with non-small cell lung cancer, whether used together with immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel," said William Doyle, Novocure’s Executive Chairman. "The accelerated interim analysis with an encouraging outcome adds to the accumulating evidence of Tumor Treating Fields’ broad potential across a range of hard-to-treat cancers."

"Combination therapy is a cornerstone of cancer care, and we believe using TTFields together with other cancer treatments, including immunotherapies, may lead to better outcomes for some patients," continued Mr. Doyle. "We are very encouraged that, consistent with our expectations, the DMC concluded that TTFields exhibited no systemic toxicity. We will continue to develop TTFields as a limited toxicity backbone therapy upon which other standard-of-care and emerging cancer treatments can be added."

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and NSCLC accounts for approximately 85% of all lung cancers. It is estimated that approximately 193,000 patients are diagnosed with NSCLC each year in the U.S. and approximately 46,000 patients receive second-line treatment for stage 4 NSCLC each year in the U.S. Physicians use different combinations of surgery, radiation and pharmacological therapies to treat NSCLC, depending on the stage of the disease. TTFields is intended principally for use together with other standard-of-care treatments, and LUNAR was designed to generate data that contemplates multiple outcomes, all of which Novocure believes will be clinically meaningful.

"The completion of the LUNAR interim analysis is an important milestone for Novocure," said Asaf Danziger, Novocure’s CEO. "We are grateful to the DMC members for their diligence, guidance and support, and are looking forward to working closely with the FDA on amendments to the protocol given the DMC’s recommendations. Pending regulatory approval, the recommended protocol adjustments could accelerate trial completion by more than a year. We look forward to sharing final data from the LUNAR trial as quickly as possible."

About NSCLC in China

Lung cancer consists of NSCLC in approximately 85% of cases and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) in approximately 15% of cases. Lung cancer has the highest total incidence of any cancer in China. According to the World Health Organization, the incidence of lung cancer in China in 2020 was 815,563 cases, with 714,699 deaths. In China, the five-year survival rate of lung cancer is estimated to be about 20%.

About LUNAR

LUNAR is a phase 3 pivotal trial testing the effectiveness of TTFields in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel versus immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel alone for patients with stage 4 NSCLC who progressed during or after platinum-based therapy. It is estimated that approximately 46,000 patients receive second-line treatment for stage 4 NSCLC each year in the U.S. The primary endpoint is superior overall survival of patients treated with TTFields plus immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel versus immune checkpoint inhibitors or docetaxel alone. TTFields is intended principally for use in combination with other standard-of-care treatments, and LUNAR was designed to generate data that contemplates multiple outcomes, all of which Novocure believes will be clinically meaningful.

About Tumor Treating Fields

Tumor Treating Fields, or TTFields, are electric fields that disrupt cancer cell division.

When cancer develops, rapid and uncontrolled division of unhealthy cells occurs. Electrically charged proteins within the cell are critical for cell division, making the rapidly dividing cancer cells vulnerable to electrical interference. All cells are surrounded by a bilipid membrane, which separates the interior of the cell, or cytoplasm, from the space around it. This membrane prevents low frequency electric fields from entering the cell. TTFields, however, have a unique frequency range, between 100 to 500 kHz, enabling the electric fields to penetrate the cancer cell membrane. As healthy cells differ from cancer cells in their division rate, geometry and electric properties, the frequency of TTFields can be tuned to specifically affect the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells mostly unaffected.

Whether cells are healthy or cancerous, cell division, or mitosis, is the same. When mitosis starts, charged proteins within the cell, or microtubules, form the mitotic spindle. The spindle is built on electric interaction between its building blocks. During division, the mitotic spindle segregates the chromosomes, pulling them in opposite directions. As the daughter cells begin to form, electrically polarized molecules migrate towards the midline to make up the mitotic cleavage furrow. The furrow contracts and the two daughter cells separate. TTFields can interfere with these conditions. When TTFields are present in a dividing cancer cell, they cause the electrically charged proteins to align with the directional forces applied by the field, thus preventing the mitotic spindle from forming. Electrical forces also interrupt the migration of key proteins to the cell midline, disrupting the formation of the mitotic cleavage furrow. Interfering with these key processes disrupts mitosis and can lead to cell death.

TTFields is intended principally for use together with other standard-of-care cancer treatments. There is a growing body of evidence that supports TTFields’ broad applicability with certain other cancer therapies, including radiation therapy, certain chemotherapies and certain immunotherapies. In clinical research and commercial experience to date, TTFields has exhibited no systemic toxicity, with mild to moderate skin irritation being the most common side effect.

Fundamental scientific research extends across two decades and, in all preclinical research to date, TTFields has demonstrated a consistent anti-mitotic effect. The TTFields global development program includes a broad range of clinical trials across all phases, included four phase 3 pivotal trials in a variety of tumor types. To date, more than 18,000 patients have been treated with TTFields.

Use of Tumor Treating Fields for the treatment of NSCLC is investigational only.

On April 13, 2021 PerkinElmer, Inc. (NYSE: PKI), a global leader committed to innovating for a healthier world, reported that it anticipates reported and organic revenue growth of 98% and 90%, respectively, for the first quarter ended April 4, 2021 (Press release, PerkinElmer, APR 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234577980]).

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PerkinElmer’s strong revenue performance was driven by broad-based momentum across the portfolio. In total, non-COVID-19, or core, demand increased approximately 10% organically year-over-year, and COVID-19 related solutions contributed approximately $535 million of revenue in the first quarter.

PerkinElmer will release its first quarter 2021 financial results after market close on Tuesday, May 4, 2021. The Company will host a conference call the same day at 5:00 p.m. ET to discuss these results. Prahlad Singh, president and chief executive officer, and Jamey Mock, senior vice president and chief financial officer, will host the conference call.

To access the call, please dial (720) 405-2250 prior to the scheduled conference call time and provide the access code 7294952. A live audio webcast of the call will also be available on the Investors section of the Company’s Web site at www.perkinelmer.com.

A replay of the webcast will be available beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET, Tuesday, May 4, 2021 through the Investors section of the Company’s website at www.perkinelmer.com.

In addition, PerkinElmer announced today that Steve Willoughby will be named vice president of investor relations effective May 5, 2021. Mr. Willoughby will assume this role from Bryan Kipp, who has transitioned into the role of vice president and general manager of Life Sciences integration.

Steve Willoughby joins PerkinElmer from Cleveland Research Company (CRC), an independent equity and market research firm with an exceptional reputation for ground-level intelligence. Most recently, Mr. Willoughby served as partner and senior analyst at CRC, providing detailed research, analysis and financial models on the Life Sciences and Managed Care industries to institutional investors across the United States and Europe. In 2018, Thomson Reuters StarMine named Mr. Willoughby the number-one analyst in the Life Science tools sector.

On April 13, 2021 Nurix Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: NRIX), a biopharmaceutical company developing targeted protein modulation drugs, reported financial results for the first quarter ended February 28, 2021 and provided a corporate update (Press release, Nurix Therapeutics, APR 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234577979]).

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"We began 2021 with the initiation of our first clinical trial to evaluate NX-2127, an orally available degrader of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase with immunomodulatory drug activity in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies," said Dr. Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Nurix. "We are on track to initiate Phase 1 trials for three more proprietary drug candidates in 2021 for patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors."

Recent Business Highlights

Expanded Strategic Collaboration with Sanofi S.A. (Sanofi): On January 7, 2021, Nurix announced the expansion of its global strategic collaboration with Sanofi to discover, develop and commercialize a pipeline of innovative targeted protein degradation drugs for patients with challenging diseases in multiple therapeutic areas. Sanofi has exercised its option to expand the number of targets in the collaboration agreement from three to a total of five targets. With the expansion, Nurix received a payment of $22 million, in addition to the previously received upfront payment of $55 million.
Completed a Public Follow-on Offering: On March 9, 2021, Nurix announced the closing of its underwritten public offering of 5,175,000 shares of common stock, at a public offering price of $31.00 per share, which included 675,000 shares issued upon the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional shares of common stock. The net proceeds to Nurix from the offering were approximately $150 million, after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses.
Presented Preclinical Data Highlighting NX-1607: Nurix presented data from its NX-1607 program at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2021 annual meeting which is being held virtually over two weeks, April 10-15 and May 17-21. NX-1607, an orally bioavailable, small-molecule inhibitor of Casitas B-lineage lymphoma B (CBL-B), demonstrated significant anti-tumor efficacy in animal models of both colorectal cancer and triple negative breast cancer. Importantly, the combination of NX-1607 and an anti-PD-1 antibody substantially increased the median overall survival and the frequency of long-lasting tumor rejection in these models compared to either single agent alone. The activity of NX-1607 was shown to be dependent on CD8+ T cells and NK cells. A copy of the poster can be found on Nurix’s website (link).
Announced Collaboration for the Discovery of Novel Drugs to Treat Pediatric Cancers: On March 16, 2021, Nurix announced that it is part of a collaboration sponsored by Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a leading funder of pediatric cancer research, to develop a drug to potentially treat aggressive childhood cancers including neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma. Nurix will provide its extensive expertise in E3 ligases and use its proprietary DNA-encoded library to help identify small-molecule degraders of MYCN, a target previously considered undruggable. The program is one of four that are being supported by ALFS’s Crazy 8 initiative, which is designed to bring together world-class research talent to accelerate the pace of new cure discovery in childhood cancer.
Upcoming Program Highlights

NX-2127: Nurix’s lead drug candidate from its protein degradation portfolio, NX-2127, is an orally available degrader of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) with immunomodulatory drug (IMiD) activity for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies. Nurix filed an IND for NX-2127 in December 2020 and received clearance by the U.S. FDA to initiate human clinical trials. Clinical sites are actively recruiting patients for a Phase 1 clinical trial of NX-2127. Additional information on the clinical trial can be accessed at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04830137).
NX-1607: Nurix’s lead drug candidate from its E3 ligase inhibitor portfolio, NX-1607, is an orally available inhibitor of CBL-B for immuno-oncology indications. Nurix anticipates initiating a Phase 1 trial for NX-1607 in the second half of 2021 (expected timing of events here and throughout the press release are based on calendar year quarters).
NX-5948: Nurix’s second drug candidate from its protein degradation portfolio, NX-5948, is an orally available BTK degrader designed without IMiD activity for certain B-cell malignancies, autoimmune diseases and related diseases such as graft-versus-host disease. Nurix recently disclosed that NX-5948 crosses the blood brain barrier in animal models, further differentiating it from NX-2127. NX-5948 has also demonstrated potent anti-inflammatory activity in an animal model of rheumatoid arthritis. Nurix anticipates initiating a Phase 1 trial for NX-5948 in patients with hematologic malignancies in the second half of 2021.
DeTIL-0255: Nurix’s lead candidate in its cellular therapy portfolio, DeTIL-0255, is a drug-enhanced adoptive cellular therapy. Nurix anticipates initiating a Phase 1 trial for DeTIL-0255 in the second half of 2021.
Fiscal First Quarter 2021 Financial Highlights

Collaboration revenue for the three months ended February 28, 2021 was $5.0 million compared to $2.9 million for the three months ended February 29, 2020. The increase was primarily due to our collaboration with Sanofi, which continued to scale up resources as compared to the prior period, resulting in higher revenue recognition due to a higher percentage of completion in the current period.

Research and development expenses for the three months ended February 28, 2021 were $23.0 million compared to $13.0 million for the three months ended February 29, 2020. The increase was primarily related to an increase of $4.6 million in compensation and related personnel costs attributable to an increase in headcount and higher non-cash stock-based compensation expense. There was also an increase of $3.5 million attributable to increases in preclinical development activities and drug discovery research and an increase of $1.1 million due to preparation for upcoming clinical activities.

General and administrative expenses for the three months ended February 28, 2021 were $6.5 million compared to $2.5 million for the three months ended February 29, 2020. The increase was primarily related to an increase of $2.4 million in compensation related expenses attributable to a higher headcount and includes $1.4 million of higher non-cash stock-based compensation expense and an increase of $1.0 million in consultant and other professional service expenses primarily related to becoming a public company.

Net loss attributed to common stockholders for the three months ended February 28, 2021 was $24.3 million, or ($0.63) per share, compared to a net loss of $12.4 million, or ($3.50) per share, for the three months ended February 29, 2020.

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Investments: As of February 28, 2021, Nurix had cash, cash equivalents and investments of $380.3 million compared to $372.0 million as of November 30, 2020. Including net proceeds of $150.1 million from the recently completed follow-on offering, Nurix has proforma cash, cash equivalents and investments of $530.4 million.