On December 16, 2021 Neogene Therapeutics, Inc., a preclinical stage biotechnology company pioneering a new class of fully individualized T cell receptor (TCR) therapies to treat cancer, reported the appointment of Raphaël Rousseau, M.D., Ph.D. as Chief Medical Officer (Press release, Neogene Therapeutics, DEC 16, 2021, View Source [SID1234597282]). Dr. Rousseau brings more than 20 years of extensive experience in oncology drug development, including engineered T cell therapies, in both academia and the biotechnology industry. He joins Neogene’s executive team and will be based in its U.S. headquarters in Santa Monica.

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"We’re thrilled to welcome Raphaël at this crucial and exciting time in our company’s growth. He is a strong leader, who has led teams across all phases of development and has successfully built and executed multiple global clinical programs," said Carsten Linnemann, Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Neogene. "Raphael’s broad experience with cell therapy and neo-antigen targeting drug modalities will be critical in helping us to diversify our pipeline and advance our programs into the clinic with the goal of bringing T cell therapies to patients across a broad spectrum of solid tumors."

Dr. Rousseau most recently served as Executive Vice President, Head of Product Development, and Chief Medical Officer at Gritstone bio, where he was responsible for the company’s global clinical development strategies and expansion of its neoantigen-based immunotherapies. He led the buildout of the clinical development organization and execution of Gritstone’s clinical strategy including conducting several phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials. Prior to Gritstone bio, Dr. Rousseau served as the Global Franchise Head of Pediatrics at Genentech and Roche, where he successfully led a global development and study management team and served as the Chair of the Development Review Committee for early and late-stage pediatric asset reviews. While at Genentech, he oversaw the clinical development of the company’s oncology portfolio from first-in-human to registrational trials for several pediatric hematology and oncology indications. Prior to joining industry, Dr. Rousseau was a Professor of Medical and Pediatric Oncology at the Université Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, and the head of the pediatric translational research program at Léon Bérard Cancer Center. There, he created and led the first European academic consortium for the conduct of a phase 1 study using CD19-targeting CAR T cells for the treatment of pediatric high-risk leukemias. Earlier in his career, Dr. Rousseau was a fellow at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he worked with Dr. Malcolm Brenner at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy. Dr. Rousseau received a Ph.D. in Therapeutic Biotechnologies from the Université Denis Diderot and an M.D. from the Université René Descartes in Paris. He is board certified in pediatrics and has a sub-specialty certification in pediatric hematology-oncology.

"I’m proud to be joining the Neogene team, which has been making great strides in the field of neoantigen-directed T cell therapy, and excited about helping advance our pioneering research into the clinic to potentially help patients who currently have limited treatment options," said Dr. Rousseau. "This is a field that I am extremely passionate about, and I am excited to apply my expertise in successfully advancing these promising therapies into clinical trials as we work to change the solid cancer treatment paradigm."

On December 16, 2021 Immutep Limited (ASX: IMM; NASDAQ: IMMP) ("Immutep" or "the Company"), a biotechnology company developing novel LAG-3 related immunotherapy treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases, reported it has signed a Manufacturing Service Agreement (MSA) with Northway Biotech, an end-to-end biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), to manufacture IMP761 ahead of clinical testing (Press release, Immutep, DEC 16, 2021, View Source [SID1234597281]).

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IMP761, Immutep’s preclinical candidate for autoimmune diseases is an immunosuppressive agonist antibody to LAG-3. It has now been tested in a Th1-driven autoimmune disease setting, oligoarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis, as a proof of concept which has been published in the peer-reviewed Pediatric Journal in Oct 2021.1

Northway Biotech is a European specialist manufacturer of recombinant proteins and monoclonal antibodies, with manufacturing sites in Lithuania and the United States. Under the agreement, Northway has already started developing a GMP-compliant manufacturing process of IMP761 and will manufacture IMP761 in large scale bioreactors. The process is based on a pharmaceutical-grade, stable GS knockout CHO K1 cell line system that has been shown to produce product yields of IMP761 in small scale setup. The work is undertaken at Northway’s Vilnius, Lithuania facility with the potential to expand the agreement to include further process scale up and cover commercial supply in the future.

After completion of the required preclinical development, the material produced will be used for Immutep’s clinical trials of IMP761. Planning for further pre-clinical and clinical development is ongoing.

Commenting on the agreement, Marc Voigt said: "We are very excited to be partnering with Northway Biotech to develop a GMP manufacturing process for IMP761. As a targeted immunosuppressive antibody, IMP761 has the potential to address the root cause of autoimmune diseases by specifically silencing the autoimmune memory T cells accumulating at the disease site, known to express LAG-3. We are very pleased to be moving IMP761 towards clinical trials."

Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, CEO of Northway Biotech said: "We have a long and successful history of developing processes to facilitate efficient and scalable production for new and promising products. Our team in Vilnius is looking forward to applying their world-class skills and state-of-the-art equipment to develop a manufacturing process including GMP manufacturing for Immutep’s IMP761."

André Markmann, VP Business Development of Northway Biotech, added: "We are proud to be selected by Immutep as CDMO to support Immutep´s fight against autoimmune diseases which impair so many patients globally."

On December 16, 2021 Innate Pharma SA (Euronext Paris: IPH; Nasdaq: IPHA) ("Innate" or the "Company") reported that the first patient was dosed in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT05086315), evaluating IPH6101/SAR443579, the first NKp46/CD16-based NK cell engager, in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML), B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) or high risk-myelodysplastic syndrome (HR-MDS) (Press release, Innate Pharma, DEC 16, 2021, View Source [SID1234597280]).

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The purpose of the dose escalation and dose expansion study, which is sponsored by Sanofi, is to evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and initial clinical activity of IPH6101/SAR443579, Innate’s lead ANKETTM asset, in various CD123-expressing hematological malignancies.

This trial is supported by positive pre-clinical results presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper) 2021 Congress, which demonstrated the CD123-targeted molecule’s potent antitumor activity against AML, including evidence supporting greater anti-leukemia activity compared with an anti-CD123 antibody. IPH6101/SAR443579 had sustained pharmacodynamic effects in non-human primates, combining efficient depletion of CD123-expressing cells with minor systemic cytokine release in comparison to T-cell engagers. As expected, it also had a favorable safety profile.

"We’re pleased with the initiation of the clinical trial for IPH6101/SAR443579, which is the first ANKETTM asset to enter the clinic. ANKETTM is our new multi-specific NK cell engager platform, which has the potential to engage NK cells through NKp46 and CD16, and more broadly, generate an entirely new class of molecules to induce synthetic immunity against cancer," said Joyson Karakunnel, MD, MSc, FACP, Chief Medical Officer of Innate Pharma. "We look forward to continuing to advance this platform given the critical role NK cells play in the cancer immunity cycle."

The start of the trial has triggered a milestone payment from Sanofi to Innate, which is part of a previously announced research collaboration with Sanofi. Under the agreement, the companies collaborate on the generation and evaluation of up to two bispecific ANKETs, using technology from Innate and Sanofi’s proprietary bispecific antibody formats as well as tumor targets. The companies are currently working on the second research program under the agreement.

More information about the Phase 1/2 trial can be found here.

About ANKETTM:

ANKETTM (Antibody-based NK cell Engager Therapeutics) is Innate’s proprietary platform for developing next-generation, multi-specific natural killer (NK) cell engagers to treat certain types of cancer. The Company’s latest innovation, its tetra-specific ANKETTM molecule, is the first NK cell engager technology to engage two NK cell activating receptors (NKp46 and CD16), a tumor antigen and the interleukin-2 receptor (by an IL-2 variant, IL-2v), via a single molecule. This molecule leverages the advantages of harnessing NK cell effector functions against cancer cells and also provides proliferation and activation signals targeted to NK cells.

In pre-clinical studies, Innate’s tri-1 and tetra-specific ANKETTM technologies promote potent NK cell activation, cytotoxicity and efficient control of tumor growth in pre-clinical models. This versatile fit-for-purpose technology is creating an entirely new class of molecules to induce synthetic immunity against cancer.

About IPH6101/SAR443579:

In the first research program of the Sanofi collaboration, IPH6101/SAR443579, the first NKp46/CD16-based NK cell engager using Innate’s proprietary multi-specific antibody format, has shown antitumor activity in pre-clinical models, including supportive pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) and safety data in non-human primate studies leading to its selection as a drug candidate for development.

About the Innate-Sanofi agreement:

The Company has a research collaboration and licensing agreement with Sanofi to apply Innate’s proprietary technology to the development of innovative multi-specific antibody formats engaging NK cells through the activating receptors NKp46 and CD16 to kill tumor cells.

Under the terms of the license agreement, Sanofi will be responsible for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of products resulting from the research collaboration. Innate Pharma will be eligible to up to €400m in development and commercial milestone payments as well as royalties on net sales.

On December 16, 2021 Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (NASDAQ: CORT) ("Corcept"), a commercial-stage company engaged in the discovery and development of drugs to treat severe metabolic, oncologic and psychiatric disorders by modulating the effects of cortisol, reported the preliminary results of its previously announced tender offer to purchase up to 10,000,000 shares of its common stock, par value $0.001 per share, at a price not greater than $23.75 nor less than $20.75 per share, in cash, less any applicable withholding taxes and without interest (the "Tender Offer"), which expired one minute after 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on December 15, 2021 (Press release, Corcept Therapeutics, DEC 16, 2021, https://ir.corcept.com/news-releases/news-release-details/corcept-therapeutics-announces-preliminary-results-previously [SID1234597279]).

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Based on the preliminary count by Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, the depositary for the Tender Offer (the "Depositary"), 31,743,651 shares of Corcept’s common stock were validly tendered and not properly withdrawn at or below a purchase price of $23.75 per share, including 13,648,561 shares tendered by notice of guaranteed delivery.

In accordance with the terms and conditions of the Tender Offer, and based on the preliminary results reported by the Depositary, Corcept expects to purchase approximately 10,000,000 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $20.75 per share, for an aggregate cost of approximately $207,500,000, excluding fees and expenses relating to the Tender Offer. The number of shares that Corcept expects to purchase in the Tender Offer represents approximately 9% of the total number of shares of common stock outstanding as of December 15, 2021. Corcept expects to have approximately 105,933,592 shares of common stock outstanding immediately following payment for the shares of common stock purchased in the Tender Offer.

Due to the oversubscription of the Tender Offer, based on the preliminary count described above, Corcept will accept for purchase on a pro rata basis approximately 35% of the shares of common stock properly tendered and not properly withdrawn at the purchase price of $20.75 per share (other than "odd lot" holders, whose shares of common stock will be purchased on a priority basis).

The number of shares of common stock expected to be purchased by Corcept, the purchase price information and the proration information are preliminary and subject to change. The preliminary information contained in this press release is subject to confirmation by the Depositary and is based on the assumption that all shares of common stock tendered through notice of guaranteed delivery will be delivered within the two trading day settlement period. The final number of shares of common stock to be purchased by Corcept, the final purchase price information and the final proration information will be announced following the completion by the Depositary of the confirmation process. Payment for the shares of common stock accepted for purchase under the Tender Offer will occur promptly thereafter.

The sole dealer manager for the Tender Offer is Truist Securities, Inc. D.F. King is serving as the information agent for the Tender Offer and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company is serving as the depositary. Canaccord Genuity LLC is serving as a financial advisor. For all questions relating to the Tender Offer, please contact the information agent, D.F. King & Co., Inc. at [email protected] or call toll-free at 1 (800) 431-9646, or call the dealer manager, Truist Securities, Inc. at 1 (404) 926-5832.

Important Notice

This press release is for informational purposes only and is not an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell any securities of Corcept.

On December 16, 2021 Invectys Inc. a clinical-stage immunotherapy company headquartered in Houston and dedicated to the development of a new generation of products for cancer patients, reported that Praveen Tyle, Ph.D., Invectys Inc. President and CEO will participate in the 2022 edition of the JP Morgan Healthcare Meeting on January 10-13, 2022 (Press release, Invectys, DEC 16, 2021, View Source [SID1234597278]).

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