On May 9, 2022 Eurofins Scientific (EUFI.PA), a global scientific leader in bioanalytical testing, reported that it has successfully signed an agreement with Stichting PAMM Laboratoria voor Pathologie en Medische Microbiologie ("PAMM"), a medical microbiology and pathology laboratory diagnostics company in The Netherlands (Press release, Eurofins Scientific, MAY 9, 2022, View Source [SID1234613848]).

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PAMM serves 6 hospitals in The Netherlands, including 2 top-rated clinical oncology centers, general practitioners and independent treatment centers. The lab specializes in medical microbiology and pathology and was the first in The Netherlands to have implemented full digital pathology. PAMM employs over 265 employees and pathologists and will complement Eurofins’ industry-leading global clinical testing offering. Through combining forces, PAMM will be able to further improve quality to clients and service to patients in the Dutch healthcare system.

The agreement includes a commitment by Eurofins to invest in the laboratory, R&D, innovation, employee development and job security. The agreement has been approved by the Dutch Healthcare authority (NZa) and The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM, Merger Control).

Comment from Dr. Gilles Martin, Eurofins CEO: "We are very pleased to welcome PAMM and its team of outstanding specialists and laboratory technicians to the Eurofins Group. This agreement reinforces the Group’s broad innovative test offering to hospitals and practitioners in The Netherlands, strengthens Eurofins geographic offering in the clinical testing market, and enhances our ability to deploy the latest scientific advances to benefit patients."

On May 8, 2022 InxMed Co., Ltd, a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to developing innovative therapies targeting stroma microenvironment and drug resistance for hard-to-treat solid tumors, reported that it had completed $15 million in Series B+ Financing (Press release, InxMed, MAY 8, 2022, View Source [SID1234614002]). The Series B+ was funded by Hyfinity Investments.

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InxMed will use the funds to accelerate ongoing clinical trials of IN10018 for multiple cancer types in both US and China, including the initiation of pivotal trials in the second half year, and advance more stroma targeting pipelines into clinics in both US and China this year, and strengthen the R&D capabilities in Nanjing.

IN10018 is a potent and highly selective adenosine triphosphate competitive FAK inhibitor, and InxMed has its exclusive global development and commercial operation rights. InxMed Nanjing Translational Medicine Center has conducted extensive original exploratory research on IN10018 and FAK targets and has published research results in renowned academic journals. Early clinical data on IN10018 showed its safety and efficacy in multiple tumor types, and the latest research results and preclinical data demonstrated that IN10018 can also be effective in combination therapies. It is expected to overcome the tumor-associated fibrosis barrier and improve local immunity, and therefore has the potential to act as an important anchor molecule in synergy with different therapeutic modalities including immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy.

IN10018 received fast track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2021, and breakthrough designation from China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for the treatment of patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. The company plans to disclose more data on IN10018 at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) in June 2022.

"InxMed is focused on the development of innovative treatments to address the true global unmet medical needs. Our strategy is targeting the ecosystem fostered by tumor cells including tumor microenvironment to develop effective therapeutic regimens to combat or even cure cancer. We have built robust pipelines with different, yet complementary Mechanism of Actions, and promising preliminary efficacy data. Building partnership is also our important strategy to maximize the value of our assets, and we are actively exploring global partnership opportunities to accelerate more value inflections of IN10018 and other programs," said Dr. Zaiqi Wang, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of InxMed.

Dr. Xin He, managing partner of Hyfinity Investments, added, "InxMed’s vision and pipeline strategy aligns with the purpose of our fund. In past three years, InxMed has proven its value and potential through its capability of global innovation, strong execution, highly synergistic pipeline and encouraging clinical efficacy of IN10018. We think InxMed is well positioned to become the first-tier China-based biotechnology innovator with a global impact and we are pleased to partner with InxMed and provide our unreserved support all along."

On May 8, 2022 JW Therapeutics (HKEx: 2126), an independent and innovative biotechnology company focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing cell immunotherapy products, reported that it will present the latest clinical study data for Carteyva via poster presentations and online publication at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting (Press release, JW Pharmaceutical, MAY 8, 2022, View Source [SID1234613850]).

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Title: Two-year follow-up result of RELIANCE study, a multicenter phase 2 trial of relmacabtagene autoleucel (Carteyva) in Chinese patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma
Format: Poster Presentation
Abstract number: 7529
Session: Hematologic Malignancies – Lymphoma and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Time: Saturday, June 4, 2022, 8:00 AM-11:00 AM CDT
Presenter: Dr. Zhitao Ying

Title: Preliminary safety and efficacy of relmacabtagene autoleucel (relma-cel) as second-line therapy for primary refractory Chinese patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL): Results from an open-label, multicenter, single-arm phase I study
Format: Online publication
Abstract number: e19509
First author: Dr. Zixun Yan

Title: Relma-cel (JWCAR029) in relapsed and refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma: A two-year survival update of a phase I study
Format: Online publication
First author: Dr. Zhitao Ying

About Relmacabtagene Autoleucel Injection (trade name: Carteyva)
Relmacabtagene autoleucel injection (abbreviated as relma-cel, trade name: Carteyva) is an autologous anti-CD19 CAR-T cell immunotherapy product independently developed by JW Therapeutics based on a CAR-T cell process platform of Juno Therapeutics (a Bristol Myers Squibb company). Being the first product of JW Therapeutics, relma-cel was approved by the China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in September 2021 for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, making it the first CAR-T product approved as Category 1 biologics product in China. Currently, it is the only CAR-T product in China that has been simultaneously included in the National Significant New Drug Development Program, granted priority review and breakthrough therapy designations.

On May 8, 2022 AskGene Limited ("AskGene"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on discovery and development of innovative biological drugs, reported the completion of USD 20 million in Series A financing (Press release, AskGene Pharmaceuticals, MAY 8, 2022, View Source [SID1234613849]). The financing was led by Qiming Venture Partners and TF Capital. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance clinical development of AskGene’s robust pipeline of innovative therapeutic candidates and development of SmartKine cytokine prodrug platform.

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Cytokines are well validated co-stimulators and hold great promise in immunotherapy, however, they have short half-lives, severe systemic toxicity and narrow therapeutic windows. SmartKine is a transformational cytokine technology platform developed by AskGene with global intellectual property rights. The technology overcomes the limitations of current cytokine therapeutics, brings next-generation cytokine therapies to patients with unmet medical needs. SmartKine molecules are designed to selectively activate a subset of immune cells preferentially at a disease site to enhance the function selectivity, developability and therapeutic indexes of cytokines.

"We are very pleased to have support from first-class investors who share our vision to modulate immune system at disease sites with precision," said Jeff Lu, Chief Executive Officer of AskGene Limited. "This is an exciting time for our company. We are advancing several potentially first-in-class or best-in-class molecules from our SmartKine platform to preclinical development and clinical development later this year. In addition, our clinical programs ASKB589 and ASKG712 are progressing smoothly. We look forward to promising results from multiple clinical programs later this year and next year."

"Cancer is still one of the major disease burdens for patients and IO has demonstrated its effectiveness", stated William Hu, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, "AskGene’s team shows deep understanding in IO and protein engineering. We believe their proprietary platform continues to generate more pipelines to clinic and market."

Allan Liu, Director at TF Capital commented: "Application of immunostimulatory cytokines has become a promising approach in cancer immunotherapy, however unfavorable PK and safety profile limit their further clinical development and application. AskGene’s proprietary SmartKine platform can overcome limitations of first-generation recombinant cytokines by achieving conditional activation of cytokines in the tumor microenvironment to unleash the full therapeutic potential. We are thrilled to partner with AskGene’s exceptional leadership team as they advance SmartKine molecules into the clinic with the ultimate goal of providing better outcomes to cancer patients."

On May 7, 2022 Dr. Gregory Fiore, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Exacis Biotherapeutics reported that it will serve on a panel exploring the difference between autologous and allogeneic stem cell therapies during the Advanced Therapies Conference (Press release, Exacis Biotherapeutics, MAY 7, 2022, View Source [SID1234613846]). The panel, "Autologous vs Allogeneic," is part of the Gene Modified Cell Therapy track for conference attendees. Exacis is a cell therapy company using mRNA to reprogram somatic cells to iPSCs and then using a proprietary mRNA based gene editing platform to engineer the cells before differentiation into immune effector (T and NK) cells for cancer applications. Dr. Fiore will share his knowledge of the research and developments in the rapidly growing cell therapy field.

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"The currently approved autologous cell therapies are making a big difference for patients, although they are limited in their availability due to multiple factors. Allogeneic therapies hold promise to overcome these accessibility barriers," said Dr. Fiore. "Exacis and others are working to develop lower cost, off-the-shelf cell therapies in order to allow many more patients to benefit from these lifesaving treatments."

The panel will take place at 12:20 pm GMT on Wednesday, May 25.

The Advanced Therapies Conference will be held May 24-25, 2022, in London. Meeting attendees will explore important topics in the Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP) space and the conference will showcase the latest technologies and advancements in the industry. The event will bring together 1,500 attendees from across the ATMP industry from pharma, biotech, research, regulatory bodies, HTAs investment and start-ups. The agenda includes 8 focused topic tracks, 300 speakers, and 100 sponsors and exhibitors.