On June 14, 2022 Almac Group, the global contract pharmaceutical development and manufacturing organisation, has today (Tuesday 14th June) reported its highest ever end-of-year results for revenue, profit, and employee numbers (Press release, Almac, JUN 14, 2022, View Source [SID1234615956]).

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In their financial results for year ending 30 September 2021, Almac recorded a £58 million (8.6%) rise in turnover from £677 million in 2020 to £735 million in 2021. Pre-tax profits were recorded at £81 million, up from £64 million (27.1% increase) for the same period the previous year.

The report also detailed an increase in Almac’s average employee figures from 5,466 to 5,783 (5.8%) during the period of October 2020 to September 2021. Current employee numbers for the Group now sits at over 6,500 and a current global recruitment drive will increase the total number to over 8,000 over the next three years, with over 1,000 of these new roles planned for Northern Ireland.

Privately owned Almac is committed to re-investing all profits back into its business and today announces a £200 million global capital investment plan to meet increased client demand over the next three years.

Investment will take place in existing Almac locations in Northern Ireland, other sites in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia.

Almac is at the forefront of developing, manufacturing, testing and distributing essential medicines to vulnerable patients around the world. During this financial year the group was involved in the development of over 300 life-saving drugs spanning more than 20 therapeutic areas including oncology, cardiology, immunology, gene therapy and neurology. Almac was also instrumental in supporting over 200 research projects for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.

Alan Armstrong, Almac Group CEO, said: "I am hugely proud of our achievements in the last financial year. I am incredibly grateful to every one of our employees for their part in delivering these outstanding results as we continue our vital work developing life-saving and life-enhancing medicines for our clients and patients.

"Almac is committed to re-investing all our profit back into the business to ensure we are market leading for clients and offer the best possible work environment for our people.

"For our clients, we are investing £200 million on expansion to ensure we remain the global leaders in our industry and give them, and ultimately patients across the world who receive benefit from these therapeutics, the best possible offering from Almac."

On June 14, 2022 Patrys reported the publication of new data from a series of studies by our collaborators Dr James Hansen, of Yale School of Medicine and Dr Kim O’Sullivan, of Monash University, showing that PAT‑DX1 suppresses the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which may reduce metastasis in some cancers (Press release, Patrys, JUN 14, 2022, View Source [SID1234615955]).

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The paper, which is published in the peer-reviewed journal ImmunoHorizons, is the first study showing that PAT-DX1 may be used to regulate the formation of NETs, which are believed to contribute to immunity, inflammation and the pathophysiology of various inflammatory diseases and some cancers.

Patrys CEO and MD, Dr. James Campbell said:

"This is an unexpected and important discovery for Patrys, offering mechanistic rationale to the previously-described ability of PAT-DX1 to reduce cancer spread by metastasis, and opening the door to broader uses of deoxymabs in non-cancer indications, particularly chronic inflammatory conditions that are driven by NET formation."

On June 14, 2022 Cogent Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: COGT), a biotechnology company focused on developing precision therapies for genetically defined diseases, reported the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 15,169,698 shares of its common stock, offered at a public offering price of $8.25 per share (Press release, Cogent Biosciences, JUN 14, 2022, View Source [SID1234615953]). In addition, in lieu of issuing common stock to certain investors, Cogent is offering pre-funded warrants to purchase 3,030,302 shares of its common stock at a purchase price of $8.24 per pre-funded warrant, which equals the public offering price per share of the common stock less the $0.01 exercise price per share of each pre-funded warrant. The aggregate gross proceeds to Cogent from this offering are expected to be approximately $150 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other estimated offering expenses, upsized from $125 million. In addition, Cogent has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,730,000 shares of its common stock at the public offering price less underwriting discounts. All of the shares of common stock and pre-funded warrants in the offering are being sold by Cogent. The offering is expected to close on or about June 16, 2022, subject to customary closing conditions.

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Cogent intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for development, regulatory and commercial preparation activities relating to bezuclastinib and other product candidates, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Jefferies, Piper Sandler & Co. and Guggenheim Securities, LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. LifeSci Capital is also acting as lead manager for the offering.

The securities described above are being offered pursuant to a shelf registration statement (File No. 333-264773) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which became effective on May 24, 2022.

A final prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the offering will be filed with the SEC. The securities described above have not been qualified under any state blue sky laws. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction. The offering can be made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus, copies of which may be obtained at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov, or by request to Jefferies LLC (Attention: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10022; telephone: 877-821-7388; email: [email protected]); or Piper Sandler & Co., Attention: Prospectus Department, 800 Nicollet Mall, J12S03, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402, or by telephone at (800) 747-3924, or by email at [email protected]; or Guggenheim Securities, LLC: Attention: Equity Syndicate Department, 330 Madison, New York, New York 10017, by telephone at 212-518-9544, or by email at [email protected].

On June 13, 2022 InventisBio reported that the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) under the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) to KRAS G12C inhibitor, D-1553, (Press release, InventisBio, JUN 13, 2022, View Source [SID1234633495]).

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InventisBio launched an international multi-center clinical study of D-1553 in October 2020, with several trials carried out since in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), colorectal cancer, and others.

In preclinical studies, D-1553 has demonstrated tumor inhibitory effect, noted the company.

Specifically in NSCLC harboring KRAS G12C mutation, D-1553 led to patients achieving an objective response rate (ORR) of 40.4%, with a disease control rate of 90.4%, according to InventisBio at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) annual meeting in April 2022.

D-1553 has become China’s first homegrown breakthrough drug for the treatment of KRAS G12C mutant tumors.

On June 13, 2022 Chiome Bioscience Inc. reported that new contract with additional institutes had been finalized and the first patient has been dosed CBA-1205, the first-in-class antibody, in the second part (expansion part) of Phase I study(Press release, Chiome Bioscience, JUN 13, 2022, View Source jp/xcontents/45830/87891347/f845/469b/96ae/2719ff6df264/20220613150323815s.pdf [SID1234625710]).

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In the first part of Phase I study, CBA-1205 exhibited good safety and tolerability. In the second part, two doses will be given to the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma to evaluate safety and to determine the optimum dose for further development. Also, the exploratory efficacy and pharmacokinetics will be investigated.

The study will be conducted at National Cancer Center Hospital, National Cancer Center Hospital East. Additional institutes will be at Kanagawa Cancer Center and Niigata University Medical and Dental Hospital.

We hope that CBA-1205 exhibits good safety and efficacy profile in the second part that is key for early licensing deal. We will announce the progress in a timely manner.

There is no impact on the financial performance in the fiscal period ending December 31, 2022.

＜About CBA-1205＞

CBA-1205 is a humanized IgG1 afucosylated monoclonal antibody targeting cell surface antigen "DLK-1 (Delta-like 1 homolog)" which expresses on hapatocellular carcinoma and other solid cancers. CBA-1205 exhibits potent and specific anti-tumor activity in various DLK1 expressing cancer models by increasing ADCC (antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity). DLK-1 is known to control the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells, progenitor cells,
and other immature cells. CBA-1205 is expected to offer a new therapeutic option for the treatment of DLK-1 expressing cancer such as hepatocellular carcinoma. The present phase I clinical study is the first trial all over the world and CBA-1205 exhibited safety and tolerability.