On April 15, 2022, Foghorn Therapeutics Inc. (the "Company") reported that entered into a sales agreement (the "Sales Agreement") with Cowen and Company, LLC ("Cowen") pursuant to which the Company may offer and sell shares of its common stock, $0.0001 par value per share ("Common Stock"), having an aggregate offering price of up to $200.0 million from time to time through Cowen as its sales agent (Filing, 8-K, Foghorn Therapeutics, APR 15, 2022, View Source [SID1234612313]). Sales of Common Stock through Cowen, if any, will be made by any method permitted by law deemed to be an "at the market offering" as defined in Rule 415(a)(4) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, including, without limitation, sales made directly on The Nasdaq Global Market or any other existing trading market for the Common Stock. Cowen will use commercially reasonable efforts to sell Common Stock from time to time, based upon instructions from the Company (including any price, time or size limits or other parameters or conditions the Company may impose). The Company will pay Cowen a commission of up to 3.0% of the gross sales price of any Common Stock sold through Cowen under the Sales Agreement. The Company has also provided Cowen with customary indemnification rights.

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The Company is not obligated to make any sales of Common Stock under the Sales Agreement. The offering of Common Stock pursuant to the Sales Agreement will terminate upon the earlier of (i) the sale of all Common Stock subject to the Sales Agreement or (ii) termination of the Sales Agreement in accordance with its terms.

The foregoing description of the Sales Agreement is not complete and is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full text of the Sales Agreement, a copy of which is filed herewith as Exhibit 1.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

The Common Stock is being offered and sold pursuant to the Company’s previously filed and currently effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3, dated February 14, 2022, containing a base prospectus (Registration Statement No. 333-262711), as amended by Post-Effective Amendment No. 1 dated April 15, 2022, and a prospectus supplement, dated April 15, 2022.

On April 14, 2022 Ubix Therapeutics reported that it has entered into a research collaboration agreement with SK Biopharmaceuticals to develop new therapeutic compounds and medicines for a potential treatment of cancer (Press release, Ubix Therapeutics, APR 14, 2022, View Source [SID1234635866]).

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The two companies will develop anti-cancer treatments by using Ubix’s Degraducer platform technology, through the application of targeted protein degradation(TPD) and SK Biopharmaceutical’s drug development skills. TPD has been gaining attention as an emerging therapeutic modality that is able to "tackle and eliminate" proteins that cause cancer – an alternative to using conventional small molecules.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ubix Therapeutics and SK Biopharmaceuticals will jointly research and develop anti-cancer drugs, including immunotherapy.

SK Biopharmaceuticals will have exclusive option rights to the compounds after both sides successfully complete their early phase clinical trials. Ubix Therapeutics will be eligible to receive undisclosed upfront and milestone payments based on the progress in the development, as well as share profit with its new partner following commercialization.

"We are excited to forge ties with Ubix Therapeutics that is domestically leading the application of targeted protein degradation. SK Biopharmaceuticals will continue to join forces with new partners to further expand its CNS and oncology portfolio," said Cheol-Young Maeng, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of SK Biopharmaceuticals.

"We are pleased to collaborate with SK Biopharmaceuticals, which has experience ranging from discovering drug candidates, conducting clinical trials to developing and commercializing global products in the central nervous system area. Through this partnership, we will successfully develop innovative anti-cancer drugs utilizing Ubix’s core platform technology." said BK Seo, CEO of Ubix Therapeutics.

On April 14, 2022 Market leading innovator in laboratory digital transformation, Scitara, reported a collaboration with scientific analytical technology leader, PerkinElmer (Press release, PerkinElmer, APR 14, 2022, View Source [SID1234613232]). The move will support the integration of the PerkinElmer Signals Research Suite informatics platform, which provides seamless, end-to-end scientific data and workflow management, with laboratory instruments, applications and resources via the Scitara Scientific Integration Platform SIP. The Scitara SIP provides a universal connectivity solution in a cloud native infrastructure that allows scientific laboratories using the PerkinElmer Signals platform to realize the full benefits of digital transformation. The combination of technologies facilitates a fully connected laboratory with standard data integrity, data mobility, system flexibility and user reconfigurability.

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This new connectivity aligns with PerkinElmer’s strategy of using its informatics offerings to drive digital transformation in the lab. Around the world today, more than 2 million scientists across pharmaceutical, agrochemical, advanced materials and food labs are using PerkinElmer’s cloud-based informatics solutions to capture, store, and analyze research data, collaborate, and support data-driven R&D and clinical decisions.

Ajit Nagral, founder and CEO of Scitara, said: "Our collaboration with PerkinElmer will create a new model of the modern lab, in which self-enabled scientists have timely access to the cross-functional data needed to advance science. The agile integration framework facilitated by the Scitara SIP adapts to changing work demands, facilitating on-the-fly workflow reconfiguration, rapid instrumentation deployment and best-of-breed informatics systems."

He added, "This comprehensive approach offers system flexibility as standard. It provides the ability to extract maximum value from legacy equipment, while dramatically lowering the barrier to introduce new, innovative technology into the connected lab. We drive data aggregation to any selected customer repository in an agile, compliant and future-proof solution. A breakthrough level of automation – from the simplest to the most complex tasks – is achieved while complying with the most stringent requirements of regulated markets."

Kevin Willoe, VP and General Manager, Informatics at PerkinElmer, Inc., commented on the collaboration further, stating: "The synergy between our two offerings, expertise areas and how we can help our respective customers, is exciting. Our market-leading informatics solutions empower scientists and researchers to improve productivity by leveraging the true value of their data. Use of the Scitara Scientific Integration Platform with our informatics solutions provides customers the ability and flexibility to work in a truly integrated laboratory environment. This will help tie together instruments, software and systems and support our customers in curating data in a standardized platform. This is the power of the lab of the future in action."

As the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries come under growing pressure to bring new drugs to market faster and more cost-effectively, they increasingly depend on new technology to support their goals. The ability to integrate the SIP infrastructure with the PerkinElmer Signals Research platform presents a new approach to data management that will enhance collaboration and drive lab automation. Integrated scientific data can also be used in tandem with AI and analytics tools, providing scientists with new insights to drive faster decision making and turn data into knowledge, helping accelerate products to market.

To learn more, join our webinar on April 27th at 11am EST.

On April 14, 2022 Heat Biologics, Inc. ("Heat") (NYSE American: HTBX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing first-in-class therapies to modulate the immune system and novel biodefense assets, reported it plans to host an investor and media livestream event on Tuesday, April 19, 2022 at 10:30 AM Eastern Time to discuss the latest developments (Press release, NightHawk Biosciences, APR 14, 2022, View Source [SID1234612542]). The event will be broadcast at: View Source

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On April 14, 2022 Akeso, Inc. (9926.HK) ( "Akeso" ), a China-based biopharmaceutical company focusing on the development and commercialization of innovative therapeutic antibodies for Oncology & Immunology, reported the publication of preclinical results of its PD-1/CD73 bi-specific antibody (AK131) at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2022 (Press release, Akeso Biopharma, APR 14, 2022, View Source [SID1234612264]). AK131 has demonstrated to have potent in-vitro and in-vivo anti-tumor activities.

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Abstract: AK131, an anti-PD1/CD73 bispecific antibody for cancer immune therapy

View Source!/10517/presentation/17745

AK131 is a bi-specific antibody derived from Penpulimab (Akeso’s marketed PD-1 antibody ) and AK119 (Akeso’s CD73 antibody in clinical stage). AK119 is a dual mechanism antibody (2021 SITC (Free SITC Whitepaper) poster #750) that both blocks the generation of adenosine and stimulates antigen specific B cell activation. Adenosine is a key immune suppressive molecule contributing to the resistance of PD-1 antibody therapy. Both CD73 and PD-1 are with high expression in the tumor microenvironment. Moreover, a growing body of literature evidence supports an important role of B cells in anit-tumor immunity. Thus the company developed a bi-specific PD-1/CD73 antibody with the capacity to relieve immune checkpoint control of T cells, activate B cells, and eliminate immune suppression by adenosine, for immune therapy of cancer.

The results and observations in AK131’s preclinical study support the development of AK131 as an anti-tumor agent in the clinic：

AK131 effectively bound to human PD-1 and CD73 with high affinity. The interaction between PD-1 and its ligand PD-L1 was blocked by AK131 in reporter gene assay.
In cellular assays, AK131 effectively promoted the secretion of IFN-γ and IL-2 by T cells in co-culture of PBMCs and Raji-PDL1 cells.
Moreover, AK131 inhibited CD73 enzymatic activity and induced endocytosis of CD73. AK131 enhanced the expression of CD69, CD83, HLA-DR and IgM which are markers of B cell activation in an adenosine-independent manner.
In in-vivo assay, AK131 successfully inhibited tumor growth in C57BL/6-hPD1/hPDL1/hCD73 transgenic mice MC38-hPDL1-hCD73 tumor syngeneic model.
Reference

[1] Huang S, Apasov S, Koshiba M, Sitkovsky M. Role of A2a extracellular adenosine receptor-mediated signaling in adenosine-mediated inhibition of T-cell activation and expansion. Blood. 1997; 90:1600-10.

[2] [2] Novitskiy SV, Ryzhov S, Zaynagetdinov R, Goldstein AE, Huang Y, Tikhomirov OY, Blackburn MR, Biaggioni I,Carbone DP, Feoktistov I, et al. Adenosine receptors in regulation of dendritic cell differentiation and function. Blood. 2008; 112:1822-31.