Cellular Cancer Immunotherapy Development Evolves, Expands with New Technologies and Targets

On June 1, 2022 The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery and development of powerful immunotherapies for all types of cancer, reported the publication of its newest analysis of the global landscape of cellular immunotherapies, including R&D trends and real-world usage data (Press release, Cancer Research Institute, JUN 1, 2022, View Source [SID1234615332]). The report, published today in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, highlights trends in cellular immunotherapy for cancer including top modalities, targets, clinical development, and data from patients receiving CAR-T therapies in clinical practice. This report is an update to CRI’s prior cellular immunotherapy landscape analysis published in July 2021.

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In this analysis, author Samik Upadhaya, Ph.D., assistant director of scientific affairs and member of the Anna-Maria Kellen Clinical Accelerator team at CRI, and colleagues provide an update on the overall status of the cellular cancer immunotherapy landscape as well as observations on key changes within the field including clinical practice. Findings include:

As of April 15, 2022, there were 2,756 active cell therapy agents in the global immuno-oncology pipeline, an increase of 36% over the 2021 landscape analysis that identified 2,031 such agents, but also a modest deceleration compared to 43% growth in the prior year
CAR-T therapeutics continue to dominate the cell therapy pipeline with growth of 24% since 2021
Development continues for non-T cell therapies including NK cell, dendritic cell, stem cell, and other myeloid-derived cell therapies, with the greatest growth in NK cell therapy, up 55% over the prior year
Clinical usage of cell therapy for cancer treatment is not keeping pace with regulatory approvals, with clinicians citing cost, travel, and supply limitations as key barriers to patient access
This latest report from the Cancer Research Institute, titled, "Landscape of cancer cell therapies: trends and real-world data," was generated in collaboration with IQVIA, a leading global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry, which provided the authors with access to IQVIA’s proprietary clinical trials database. The report is part of a suite of CRI-owned immuno-oncology landscape analyses that includes reports on cell therapy drug development and the broader IO landscape including clinical development of checkpoint inhibitors, cancer vaccines, and oncolytic viruses in addition to bispecific antibodies and other immunomodulators.

To access an interactive dashboard of the Cancer Research Institute’s cancer cell immunotherapy report, visit the CRI website at cancerresearch.org/cell-therapy.

Final results of Herantis Pharma Plc’s fully subscribed rights issue

On June 1, 2022 Herantis Pharma Plc ("Herantis" or the "Company"), an innovative biotech company developing new disease modifying therapies for Parkinson’s disease, reported on 3 May 2022 that the Board of Directors of Herantis had decided to offer Herantis’ shareholders up to 4,831,426 new shares (the "Offer Shares") in a rights issue on the basis of shareholders’ pre-emptive subscription rights in the same proportion as they already hold shares in the Company and secondarily by other shareholders or by other persons (the "Offering") (Press release, Herantis Pharma, JUN 1, 2022, View Source,c3578594 [SID1234615331]). According to the final results of the Offering, Herantis received gross proceeds of approximately EUR 7.25 million from the Offering.

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The final results of the Offering show that the Offering was subscribed in full. Approximately 81.1 per cent of the 4,831,426 Offer Shares were subscribed for with subscription rights. The remaining approximately 18.9 per cent of the Offer Shares were allocated in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Offering in the secondary subscription to subscribers who subscribed for Offer Shares also with subscription rights. No Offer Shares were allocated to subscribers who subscribed for Offer Shares only without subscription rights in the secondary subscription in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Offering. The subscription price in the Offering was EUR 1.50 per Offer Share in Finland and SEK 15.60 per Offer Share in Sweden.

Herantis’ Board of Directors has today approved the subscriptions made in the Offering, and allocated the Offer Shares to be issued, in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Offering. As a result of the Offering, the total number of shares in Herantis will increase by 4,831,426 from 12,078,568 to 16,909,994. The Offer Shares issued in the Offering amount to approximately 28.6 per cent of the outstanding shares in Herantis following the Offering.

The last day of trading in the interim shares on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland ("First North Finland") will be on or about 2 June 2022 and on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Sweden ("First North Sweden") on or about 9 June 2022. The Offer Shares will be registered with the Finnish Trade Register maintained by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office on or about 2 June 2022. The interim shares will be combined with the Company’s existing shares once the Offer Shares have been registered with the Finnish Trade Register. The combination will take place on or about 3 June 2022 in Finland and on or about 10 June 2022 in Sweden. The trading in the Offer Shares on First North Finland will commence on or about 3 June 2022 and on First North Sweden on or about 10 June 2022. The Offer Shares confer the same rights as Herantis’ other shares, after being registered with the Finnish Trade Register and delivered on the investor’s book-entry account, on or about 3 June 2022 in Finland and on or about 10 June 2022 in Sweden.

UB Securities Ltd is acting as the lead manager of the Offering. Krogerus Attorneys Ltd is acting as the legal counsel to the Company as to Finnish law and Advokatfirman Cederquist KB as to Swedish law.

OncoNano Medicine Appoints Kartik Krishnan, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer

On June 1, 2022 OncoNano Medicine, Inc. reported the appointment of Kartik Krishnan, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer (Press release, OncoNano Medicine, JUN 1, 2022, View Source [SID1234615330]). Dr. Krishnan will be responsible for formulating and leading all clinical development efforts and operations at OncoNano. Additionally, Dr. Krishnan will develop and implement the strategic clinical plans for OncoNano, including the creation of a medical affairs team, as the company further advances its clinical oncology development programs.

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"We are thrilled that OncoNano has been successful in attracting such a noted and impressive scientist as Dr. Krishnan. Kartik is a proven and respected oncology drug developer, with extensive experience in leading the development of novel oncology therapeutic programs," said Martin Driscoll, CEO of OncoNano. "His breadth of experience and history of drug development success will be instrumental to our company as we progress our differentiated portfolio of oncology development candidates into multiple clinical trials."

Dr. Krishnan previously served as Chief Medical Officer at Arcus Biosciences, where he led the expansion of the company’s portfolio into novel indications and combinations, as well as the initiation of a number of pivotal Phase 3 trials. Prior to joining Arcus, he served as Executive Medical Director at Astex Pharmaceuticals, providing strategic direction and tactical support across multiple programs in all phases of development. Dr. Krishnan has also held positions in clinical drug development at Genentech, FivePrime Therapeutics, BioMarin and Amgen. Dr. Krishnan earned both his M.D. and Ph.D. in Cellular, Molecular, and Biophysical Studies from Columbia University.

"My passion is working with novel technologies that have the potential to benefit the treatment of patients with cancer. I am excited about the potential for the core platform technology at OncoNano that can deliver oncology payloads in a targeted and efficient manner to the tumor microenvironment," said Dr. Krishnan. "I believe I am joining OncoNano at an ideal time because I can immediately impact the strategic development plans for the OncoNano therapeutics programs and lead the execution of the clinical programs at the company. I am impressed with the OncoNano organization and look forward to working with Marty and the OncoNano team to successfully advance our pipeline and achieve the company’s mission to benefit cancer patients."

Aadi Bioscience to Present at the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference

On June 1, 2022 Aadi Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ: AADI), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing precision therapies for genetically defined cancers with alterations in mTOR pathway genes, reported members of the Aadi senior management team will participate in the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference, to be held in New York, NY June 8-10, 2022 (Press release, Aadi Bioscience, JUN 1, 2022, View Source [SID1234615329]). Founder, Chief Executive Officer and President, Neil Desai, Ph.D. is scheduled to present live during a fireside chat at 10am ET on Thursday, June 9, 2022.

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A live webcast of the presentation will be available on the "Event Calendar" page within the Investors & News section of the Company’s website at www.aadibio.com. A replay of the webcast will be available for approximately 30 days following the presentation.

Monteris Medical Announces Publication of Largest Cohort to Date of LITT for Treating Most Aggressive Brain Tumor

On June 1, 2022 Monteris Medical reported that a paper on laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) for patients diagnosed with IDH wild–type glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive tumor originating in the brain, has been published in the journal, Neuro- Oncology Advances (Press release, Monteris Medical, JUN 1, 2022, https://www.monteris.com/press-releases/monteris-medical-announces-publication-of-largest-cohort-to-date-of-litt-for-treating-most-aggressive-brain-tumor/ [SID1234615327]). The data on 89 patients collected through the LAANTERN prospective, multi-center registry, showed that LITT offers an effective alternative to traditional surgery for patients with newly diagnosed and recurrent glioblastoma while also delivering the benefits of a minimally invasive surgical procedure, including short recovery time and reduced potential for side effects.

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The publication demonstrated that for newly diagnosed patients treated with LITT followed by standard of care chemotherapy and radiation, overall survival (16.14 months) and progression free survival (11.93 months) are comparable to published outcomes where traditional surgery was used. For patients with recurrent disease, no standard of care is currently established; however, this study showed median post-LITT survival of nearly nine months, compared to the range of 5-13 months observed for traditional surgery. In addition, the functional status of patients stabilized or improved at one month post-LITT.

IDH (isocitrate dehydrogenase – a genetic mutation) wild-type glioblastomas require immediate intervention. With standard of care therapy, median overall survival for glioblastoma is estimated at 15-18 months with fewer than 10% of patients alive at five years. Other molecularly defined gliomas may be less prevalent than IDH wild-type, but they are known to have longer survival rates. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to stratify research by sub-type and molecular characteristics to control for the variability in survival rates across all glioma types.

Dr. John de Groot, lead author of the paper and division chief of neuro-oncology at the University of California San Francisco Weill Institute for Neurosciences, said, "For patients with glioblastoma, treatment options are limited, especially for those with recurrent disease. These data clearly demonstrate that LITT remains a critical tool for achieving maximal safe cytoreduction of the tumor and is especially effective when followed by chemotherapy and radiation. The minimally invasive nature of LITT, short recovery, and favorable side effect profile make LITT a safe and effective option."

About 25,000 primary brain tumors are diagnosed in the United States each year. Of these, about 15% are glioblastomas. Those glioblastomas that are moleculary-defined as IDH wild-type tend to grow rapidly and have a worse prognosis than other tumor types.

Martin J. Emerson, president and chief executive officer of Monteris, said, "Congratulations to the LAANTERN physicians and their research teams on the publication of this essential study on LITT and primary brain tumors. We are so grateful to the patients that gave their time and energy to participate in this study. The collective body of evidence that continues to emerge in support of laser ablation has firmly established LITT’s position in the care continuum for appropriate brain tumor and epilepsy patients."

About LAANTERN

LAANTERN is a post-market study designed to evaluate the performance and utilization of the NeuroBlate System in the standard of care, "real-world" setting. This is the first prospective multicenter laser ablation study. All sites operate under an IRB-approved protocol and undergo rigorous data management and monitoring practices to ensure data quality and consistency. The registry will follow up to 3,000 patients for five years evaluating safety, quality of life, health economics and procedural outcomes, including survival and seizure freedom.