On September 22, 2021 Cyclica, the partner of choice for data-driven drug discovery, and IMPACT Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of targeted anti-cancer therapeutics with synthetic lethality approach, reported that they have entered to a collaboration agreement on IMPACT Therapeutics’ differentiated targeted anti-cancer drug development (Press release, Cyclica, SEP 22, 2021, View Source [SID1234590145]).

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IMPACT Therapeutics will apply Cyclica’s Ligand Express platform to selectively understand the targetivity profile of its novel anticancer therapeutics. The insights gained from such a collaboration will further improve and validate IMPACT Therapeutics’ competitive advantage in its clinical candidate.

Dr. Vern De Biasi, Cyclica’s Chief Partnership Officer indicates, "given IMPACT’s oncology focus, combined with Cyclica’s experience target profiling within oncology, the potential of our partnership is very promising. We’re thrilled to be teaming up with a hyper-innovative company in the oncology space with the collective goal of bringing medicines to patients in need."

Dr. Jun Bao, President and Chief Executive Officer of IMPACT Therapeutics shares his enthusiasm for the partnership by adding, "The collaboration makes good start for IMPACT to advance small molecule research integrating AI solutions into traditional processes to make medicine more personalised. We will continue to explore collaboration opportunities to advance the development of our clinical and pre-clinical assets and enhance our capabilities in R&D, to address unmet medical needs and make an impact on cancer treatment."

On September 22, 2021 Onco360, the nation’s largest independent Oncology Pharmacy, reported that it has been selected by Takeda to be a specialty pharmacy partner for EXKIVITY (mobocertinib), the first oral treatment option for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 insertion mutations, as detected by an FDA-approved test, whose disease has progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy (Press release, Onco360, SEP 22, 2021, View Source [SID1234590144]).

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"Onco360 is excited to become a specialty pharmacy provider for EXKIVITY patients," said Benito Fernandez, Chief Commercial Officer, Onco360. "As a provider of this important treatment option for patients, Onco360 is committed to supporting the highly specialized needs of locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC patients with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations and their physicians across the United States."

According to the National Cancer Institute‘s (NCI) Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, approximately 235,760 patients will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021 with a corresponding 131,880 deaths. Approximately 85% of lung cancer cases are represented by NSCLC. When considering all subtypes of lung cancer as well as stages of the disease, lung cancer patients have a poor five-year overall survival (OS) of 21.7%. Unfortunately, 56% of lung cancer patients will have incurable, metastatic disease at the time of initial diagnosis.1 Approximately 0.1 to 4% of all NSCLC patients have EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations.2

EXKIVITY is manufactured by Takeda, a commercial-stage biotechnology company. The FDA’s approval of EXKIVITY is based upon the results of a pooled subset of patients with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutation-positive locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC whose disease had progressed on or after platinum-based chemotherapy who were enrolled in the international, open-label, multicohort Phase I/II AP32788-15-101 (NCT02716116) clinical trial. This data demonstrated that EXKIVITY administration resulted in a 28% overall response rate (ORR) in this patient population.3 For full prescribing information, visit EXKIVITY.com.

On September 22, 2021 Hexagon Bio, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery of medicines encoded in the global metagenome, reported that it has raised $61 million to fuel the continued development of its platform to design and develop new therapeutics mined from microbial genomes (Press release, Hexagon Bio, SEP 22, 2021, View Source [SID1234590143]). Nextech Invest led the financing, with participation from new investors SoftBank Vision Fund 2* and Casdin Capital, as well as existing investors The Column Group, 8VC, and Two Sigma Ventures.

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"Microbial genomes are an incredibly rich source of diverse, potent and drug-like compounds that, as a result of millions of years of evolution, provide elegant solutions to human therapeutic targets that have eluded traditional screening approaches. To date, the discovery of these small molecules has been limited to a tiny fraction of the earth’s microbes and hampered by a lack of mechanistic understanding of the intended drug targets," said Maureen Hillenmeyer, Ph.D., Hexagon’s co-founder and CEO. "Hexagon exists to overcome these challenges and unearth new medicines to combat human disease. We are excited to embark on the next phase of growth to discover and develop unique and potent therapeutic compounds for a broad spectrum of intractable diseases."

Hexagon’s interdisciplinary platform combines technological advances and proprietary insights across machine learning, genomics, synthetic biology and automation to systematically discover new chemical compounds linked to known protein targets. Hexagon has built a database of microbial genomes that is more than twice the size of all public databases and is adding thousands of additional genomes per month. Hexagon is leveraging this database to rapidly discover structurally diverse small molecules, and, using its proprietary heterologous expression (HEx) technology, produce and optimize the resulting therapeutic candidates. Proceeds from the financing will enable the company to further expand its genomics database and accelerate its drug discovery efforts with an initial focus on high-value anti-infective and oncology targets.

The latest financing brings the total of committed funding for Hexagon to more than $108 million. In conjunction with Nextech Invest’s participation, managing partner Jakob Loven, Ph.D. will join the Hexagon board of directors.

"Hexagon’s differentiated approach to identifying novel chemical matter against challenging targets presents a compelling opportunity," said Dr. Loven. "We look forward to working with Hexagon’s talented team to help realize the company’s ambitious vision of turning nature’s hidden molecules into first-in-class medicines for patients in need."

On September 22, 2021 Legend Biotech Corporation (NASDAQ: LEGN), a global clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel cell therapies for oncology and other indications, reported that it will host its first Research & Development Day on Monday, October 18, commencing at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time), at Andaz 5th Avenue in New York (Press release, Legend Biotech, SEP 22, 2021, View Source [SID1234590142]).

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The meeting will feature updates on the company’s advancing pipeline of hematological and oncological indications and expanding cell therapy capabilities, including its B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) clinical development program. Presentations will be delivered by Legend’s senior leadership team:

Ying Huang, PhD, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer
Frank Fan, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer
Steve Gavel, Vice President, US & Europe Commercial
Lida Pacaud, MD, Vice President, Clinical Development
A live webcast and presentation will be available to investors and other interested parties on the Legend Biotech website under "Events and Presentations". A recording of the webcast can be viewed as early as 24 hours after the event and will be archived for six months.

To register for the event, please visit this link.

On September 22, 2021 KSQ Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing drugs to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases using its proprietary, integrated discovery platform to systematically screen the whole genome in cancer and immune cells, reported that Qasim Rizvi, Chief Executive Officer of KSQ, will present at the 2021 Cantor Virtual Global Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 at 4:40 PM (ET) (Press release, KSQ Therapeutics, SEP 22, 2021, View Source [SID1234590141]). The conference is being held September 27-30, 2021.

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