On November 23, 2021 Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc. ("Dragonfly"), reported that Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, reported that it has licensed its second TriNKET immunotherapy candidate from Dragonfly (Press release, Dragonfly Therapeutics, NOV 23, 2021, View Source [SID1234596004]). Merck licensed its first TriNKET immunotherapy candidate from Dragonfly in November 2020. Merck and Dragonfly’s collaboration, initially focused on a number of solid tumor targets, began in October 2018. The companies expanded their collaboration last year with a multi-target agreement to develop and commercialize additional natural killer ("NK") cell engager immunotherapies in oncology, infectious disease and immune disorders.

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"Merck is a powerful world leader in drug development across a wide number of therapeutic areas and continues to be a strong scientific collaborator," said Bill Haney, co-founder and CEO of Dragonfly Therapeutics. "We are delighted that Merck has now exercised its option for this second immunotherapy candidate from our initial collaboration, and excited by the progress we are making together on bringing Dragonfly’s TriNKET technology to targets across a broader set of diseases."

Under the agreement Merck has exercised its option to license exclusive worldwide intellectual property rights on its second immunotherapy candidate developed using the TriNKET technology platform and Dragonfly has received an undisclosed payment associated with this milestone.

On November 23, 2021 Mission Bio, the pioneer in high-throughput single-cell DNA and multi-omics analysis, reported a publication in Nature led by researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) that could broaden the potential benefits for KRAS G12C inhibitors like sotorasib (brand name Lumakras) in patients with lung cancer and other solid tumors (Press release, Mission Bio, NOV 23, 2021, View Source [SID1234596003]). Mission Bio’s Tapestri Platform empowered researchers to understand how resistance evolves against these lung cancer drugs by identifying secondary mutations within individual cancer cells that allowed them to bypass the therapeutic effect.

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Earlier this year, sotorasib became the first FDA-approved therapy directly inhibiting a mutation in the RAS family of oncogenes, which are implicated in a third of all cancers[1]. Sotorasib inhibits KRAS G12C in particular, which is found in 13% of patients with non-small cell lung cancers and is also common in other solid tumors like colorectal cancer. KRAS G12C inhibitors can halt disease progression for nearly 40% of patients with lung cancer carrying the mutation, but most of those who initially respond to the treatment eventually become resistant to it.

In the Nature paper titled "Diverse alterations associated with resistance to KRAS(G12C) inhibition," the team led by Dr. Piro Lito, medical oncologist at MSK, first compared patient tumor samples before and after treatment with sotorasib, identifying a host of secondary mutations that arose during treatment in genes like KRAS, NRAS, MRAS, and BRAF. But the mutations were identified using bulk next-generation sequencing (which mixes DNA from cells together), giving a limited understanding of how individual cells developed resistance.

At this point, the Tapestri Platform was used to better understand how mutations emerge in individual cells. Researchers found that the secondary mutations they identified from bulk sequencing often co-occurred with the targeted mutation (KRAS G12C) in the drug-resistant cells. These secondary mutations within the same cells were shown to circumvent the effect of target KRAS inhibitor therapy by upregulating other players in the pathway.

Dr. Jorge Reis-Filho, Director of Experimental Pathology at MSK, whose lab contributed to this work, said, "KRAS inhibitors are exciting new therapeutic agents, and understanding the basis of resistance to these new agents is essential. Tapestri and single-cell DNA sequencing can uncover important nuances of resistance mechanisms, like co-occurring mutations, which may otherwise be missed by bulk sequencing."

"Research like this is changing the landscape of cancer biology, which in turn is creating new pathways for precision cancer therapies," said Yan Zhang, CEO of Mission Bio. "Without single-cell DNA sequencing, it would have been impossible to definitively measure the co-occurrence of mutations within cancer cells and understand the mechanisms of resistance at this granular level. It’s wonderful to see Tapestri enabling the future of cancer therapeutics."

To find out how single-cell analysis can unravel the mechanisms that drive disease correction and disease progression, visit missionbio.com.

On November 23, 2021 Gracell Biotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ: GRCL) ("Gracell" or the "Company"), a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing highly efficacious and affordable cell therapies for the treatment of cancer, reported that members of its senior management team, including its Chairman of Board and Chief Executive Officer Dr. William (Wei) Cao, Chief Financial Officer Dr. Yili Kevin Xie and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Martina A. Sersch, have informed the Company of their intention to use their personal funds to purchase the Company’s American depositary shares ("ADSs") on the open market for an aggregate amount up to a maximum of $2 million within the next three months (Press release, Gracell Biotechnologies, NOV 23, 2021, View Source [SID1234596002]).

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On November 23, 2021 RedHill Biopharma Ltd. (Nasdaq: RDHL) ("RedHill" or the "Company"), a specialty biopharmaceutical company, reported the closing of the previously announced underwritten public offering of approximately 4.7 million American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") for gross proceeds of approximately $15.5 million, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and other estimated offering expenses payable by RedHill (Press release, RedHill Biopharma, NOV 23, 2021, View Source [SID1234596000]). Each ADS represents ten ordinary shares, par value NIS 0.01 per share, of the Company. All of the ADSs were offered by RedHill. In addition, RedHill has granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to approximately an additional 0.7 million ADSs.

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Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. acted as sole bookrunner for the offering. SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc. acted as a financial advisor to the Company.

RedHill intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to fund its commercialization activities, clinical development programs and for acquisitions and general corporate purposes.

The securities described above were offered by RedHill pursuant to a shelf registration statement on Form F-3 (No. 333-232777) declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on August 8, 2019.

The final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the offering was filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s website at View Source Alternatively, copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., 499 Park Avenue, 4th Floor, New York, New York 10022, Attn: Capital Markets Department, or by email at [email protected].

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein, 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 November 23, 2021 ViewRay, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRAY), maker of the MRIdian, which combines MRI and external-beam radiation therapy to simultaneously image and treat cancer patients, reported the closing of an additional 1,875,000 shares of common stock following the exercise in full of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares in connection with its recently completed public offering of 12,500,000 shares of common stock, for additional gross proceeds of $10.5 million for total gross proceeds of $80.5 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by ViewRay (Press release, ViewRay, NOV 23, 2021, View Source [SID1234595999]). All of the shares sold in the offering were sold by ViewRay.

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ViewRay intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, capital expenditures, continued research and development and commercial expenses.

Piper Sandler and Stifel acted as the joint book-running managers for the offering. Guggenheim Securities also acted as a book-running manager for the offering. B. Riley Securities and BTIG acted as co-managers for the offering.

A registration statement relating to these securities was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and automatically became effective upon filing. This offering was made solely by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus included in the registration statement. A final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering was filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s website located at View Source Alternatively, copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus may be obtained by contacting Piper Sandler & Co., Attention: Prospectus Department, 800 Nicollet Mall, J12S03, Minneapolis, MN 55402, by telephone at (800) 747-3924, or by email at [email protected], or Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Attention: Prospectus Department, One Montgomery Street, Suite 3700, San Francisco, CA 94104, by telephone at (415) 364-2720, 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 of these securities under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.