On April 19, 2022 Coeptis Therapeutics, Inc. (OTC PINK: COEP) ("Coeptis" or "the Company"), a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative cell therapy platforms for cancer, and Bull Horn Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq: BHSE) ("Bull Horn"), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), reported they have entered into a definitive merger agreement for a business combination that will result in Coeptis becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bull Horn (Press release, Coeptis Pharmaceuticals, APR 19, 2022, View Source [SID1234612478]). Under the terms of the merger agreement, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bull Horn will merge with and into Coeptis and the holders of the outstanding Coeptis shares will receive equity in Bull Horn valued at $175 million (subject to adjustments). The Boards of Directors of both Coeptis and Bull Horn have unanimously approved the proposed merger, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of all regulatory approvals, as well as the approval of the proposed merger by Coeptis’ and Bull Horn’s shareholders. The close of the transaction is anticipated to occur in the third quarter 2022, with Bull Horn to domesticate from the British Virgin Islands to a Delaware corporation prior to the closing. Bull Horn will be rebranded and operate as Coeptis Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. and is expected to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "COEP." Coeptis Therapeutics’ current President and Chief Executive Officer, David Mehalick, will lead the combined company as President and Chief Executive Officer, and current Chief Financial Officer of Bull Horn, Chris Calise, will join the post-closing Board of Directors.

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Coeptis is a developer of cell therapy platforms for cancer with the potential to disrupt conventional treatment paradigms and improve clinical outcomes. Coeptis’ product portfolio is highlighted by a cell therapy technology (CD38-GEAR-NK) and an in vitro diagnostic (CD38-Diagnostic) targeting CD38-related cancers, which Coeptis is co-developing with VyGen-Bio, Inc. CD38-GEAR-NK is a natural killer (NK) cell-based investigational therapeutic engineered to enable combination therapy with anti-CD38 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). CD38-Diagnostic is a pre-clinical in vitro screening tool to potentially pre-determine which cancer patients are most likely to benefit from targeted anti-CD38 mAb therapies, either as a monotherapy or in combination with CD38-GEAR-NK.

"Today’s announcement is a key milestone for Coeptis as it gains access to the capital needed to advance our product portfolio highlighted by CD38-GEAR-NK and CD38-Diagnostic," said Mr. Mehalick. "The combination of CD38-GEAR-NK and CD38-Diagnostic has the potential to provide a more targeted administration of anti-CD38 mAbs in the treatment of cancers, including multiple myeloma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and acute myeloid leukemia. I would like to thank all those involved in achieving this milestone, including Bull Horn, Bridgeway Capital Partners, our existing and new investors, and the entire Coeptis team."

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to impact the advancement of technology and assets that will benefit cancer patients through this combination with Coeptis. Led by an exceptional management team, Coeptis is taking a novel approach to treating patients with cancer and expanding its development pipeline," said Mr. Calise. "We are excited by Coeptis’ plans for the technology, and view this opportunity as a significant value driver for our shareholders."

The transaction is subject to closing conditions, including the approval of holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of Coeptis voting stock and Bull Horn ordinary shares, and other customary conditions. Bridgeway Capital Partners and Meister Seelig & Fein LLP served as financial and legal advisors, respectively, to Coeptis. Jones Trading and Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP served as financial and legal advisors, respectively, to Bull Horn.

Additional information about the transaction will be provided in a Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed by Bull Horn Holdings Corp. and Coeptis Therapeutics, Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and will be available at the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov.

On April 19, 2022 Today, one year after its founding, Break Through Cancer reported $50 million in grants to support several cutting-edge research projects using a novel "TeamLab" structure—designed to maximize interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Press release, Break Through Cancer, APR 19, 2022, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=break-through-cancer-announces-50m-in-grants-to-empower-researchers-from-five-top-cancer-research-centers-to-work-as-one [SID1234612477]). This first-of-its-kind model for collaboration enables researchers to boldly tackle some of the biggest challenges in cancer. Break Through Cancer hopes to overcome conventional barriers to multi-institution teamwork using streamlined systems and advanced analytics for data sharing in real time; umbrella contractual agreements that reduce administrative burdens on researchers; and pioneering policies on intellectual property and authorship.

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The Foundation is funding four TeamLab-based research projects with an initial investment of more than $50 million in grants to bring new approaches and innovative ideas as rapidly as possible to the clinical challenges of glioblastoma, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers.

"Break Through Cancer and its partner institutions are reducing the siloes in the academic research system as never before," said Tyler Jacks, president, Break Through Cancer. "In just one year’s time, we have built an expansive and impressive community of leading cancer researchers and physicians who can now work as one to accelerate the pace of discovery. This model of radical collaboration will empower many of the brightest minds in cancer research and maximize the capabilities of partner institutions."

Added Jacks, "In the near future, we look forward to partnering with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as technology developers to further expand the impact of Break Through Cancer."

"To be part of Break Through Cancer’s new model of research collaboration is extremely exciting," said Rebecca Stone, MD, MS, director of the Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service, associate professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and a principal investigator for Break Through Cancer’s funded research in ovarian cancer. "Break Through Cancer has created a fertile ecosystem for nurturing new ideas and rapidly bringing laboratory discovery to advance cancer care."

Break Through Cancer’s initial investment of $50 million will fund the following research projects for an initial three-year period and will include researchers and physicians from all five partner institutions.

Intercepting Ovarian Cancer

Recent research has shown that most, if not all, high grade serous ovarian cancer originates as precursor lesions of the fallopian tubes.
In addition to characterizing precursor lesions located in the fallopian tubes, the team will develop strategies to expand awareness of and access to safe and effective ways for women to undergo fallopian tube removal as a primary prevention strategy, particularly in women who are done having children and are already undergoing elective abdominal surgeries.
Targeting Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) in Ovarian Cancer

A key factor underlying these poor ovarian cancer cure rates is the ability of cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy to persist after frontline treatment.
Among other aims, the research team will develop and benchmark the accuracy of new blood biopsy and "second-look" surgical technologies to monitor MRD at high resolution including extensive use of single-cell analysis.
Revolutionizing GBM Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies

The Revolutionizing GBM (glioblastoma) Drug Development Through Serial Biopsies project will demonstrate the safety and feasibility of carefully performed serial biopsies, and assess how promising new therapies directly affect these brain tumors. The objective of the project is to establish a new paradigm of therapy development for GBM.
The extraordinary level of funding support from Break Through Cancer, highly unusual in GBM research, will be essential to overcoming many financial and logistical barriers to converting the vision of longitudinal tumor sampling into a reality.
Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer in partnership with the Lustgarten Foundation

The Conquering KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer team will integrate clinical and laboratory approaches to understand why patients do or do not respond to new KRAS directed therapies using powerful technologies to deeply investigate biology in preclinical models and in humans.
The team will develop pharmaceutical partnerships to accelerate the translation of new KRAS inhibitors into effective drugs for this disease.

On April 19, 2022 Applied Cells Inc. and STEMCELL Technologies Canada Inc. reported their collaboration to deliver a new high-performance cell separation solution that combines Applied Cells’ MARS platform with STEMCELL’s EasySep immunomagnetic cell separation kits (Press release, Applied Cells, APR 19, 2022, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=applied-cells-enters-into-a-supply-agreement-with-stemcell-technologies [SID1234612475]). This partnership will help researchers around the world to automate and increase the efficiency of isolating high-quality cells from a wide range of sample types such as whole blood, bone marrow, apheresis products, and dissociated tissue.

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Through automation, the Applied Cells MARS cell isolation workflow reduces human error and increases efficiency to achieve the "3H Solution" of high purity, high recovery, and high reproducibility. The MARS platform takes a "multi-physics" approach to streamline the sample preparation and cell isolation process at both small and large scale, with a defined pathway to full-enclosure, bag-based capabilities. Cells isolated with MARS may be used in tumor biology, genomics analyses, and cell therapy applications.

STEMCELL’s EasySep cell isolation technology enables the fast and easy isolation of highly purified cells from a variety of species and sample sources by combining the specificity of monoclonal antibodies with the simplicity of column-free, magnetic cell separation systems. By using STEMCELL’s cell isolation kits in the MARS cell isolation workflow, users will be able to isolate cells with high specificity and purity. In this way, STEMCELL’s cell isolation reagents will broaden the applications of the MARS platform and support the specialized requirements of researchers who need to isolate extremely low-frequency cancer cells from human samples.

"Advanced cell isolation solutions are required to handle ever more complex cell isolation needs," noted Yuchen Zhou, CEO at Applied Cells. "The combined solutions of the Applied Cells MARS platform and STEMCELL Technologies’ cell separation reagents bring to the research market a next-generation solution for evolving cell separation requirements."

"STEMCELL is thrilled to offer our cell separation reagents for use with instruments from Applied Cells. This collaboration will make it easier for researchers to isolate the cells they need to advance cancer or cell therapy research," noted Dr. Allen Eaves, STEMCELL’s President and CEO.

On April 19, 2022 Vivesto AB, an oncology-focused specialty pharmaceutical company, reported that it is advancing research into its proprietary drug delivery formulations and has signed a research agreement with Visikol Inc., a leading U.S. contract research services provider (CRO) (Press release, Vivesto, APR 19, 2022, View Source [SID1234612471]). Visikol will conduct research to evaluate the cellular effects of new and existing anti-cancer drug formulations developed using Vivesto’s proprietary XR-17 and XR-18 technologies.

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As a result of this research, Vivesto will be able to assess anti-cancer compounds formulated with its XR-17 drug delivery platform as well as line extensions formulated with the XR-18 technology that it is currently developing with regard to their therapeutic properties and underlying biologic effects. This research will allow Vivesto to select promising developmental drug candidates and further expand its current and future oncology pipeline focused on hard-to-treat and late-stage cancers.

Visikol specialises in accelerating the drug discovery and development process by providing its clients with advanced tissue imaging and cell culture services. Visikol has been instrumental in the successful development of dozens of drug discovery programs and counts the top twenty pharmaceutical companies as clients.

Reinhard Koenig, MD, CSO of Vivesto, commented "We continue to advance our internal research efforts by developing our XR-17 and XR-18 technologies, including line extensions and formulations with anti-cancer compounds. We are working hard to achieve a deeper understanding of the cellular effects of these formulations and have therefore partnered with Visikol, an experienced U.S. services company, to provide valuable insights. We are looking forward to integrating the output of this research into the development of new compounds."

On April 19, 2022 Soligenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNGX) (Soligenix or the Company), a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products to treat rare diseases where there is an unmet medical need, reported that it has received approximately $1.4 million, net of transaction costs, in non-dilutive funding via multiple government tax programs (Press release, Soligenix, APR 19, 2022, View Source [SID1234612470]).

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"We have received $1.2 million from the state of New Jersey’s (NJ) Technology Business Tax Certificate Transfer Program and $0.2 million from the United Kingdom’s (UK) Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit Program," stated Christopher J. Schaber, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Soligenix. "We continue to be extremely active in our pursuit of non-dilutive funding to offset operating expenses. This is our twelfth year receiving NJ Net Operating Loss (NOL) funding. Over this time period, we have received approximately $7.6 million in non-dilutive NOL funding. This has allowed us to advance our rare disease pipeline to where we are today, with multiple later stage clinical assets and preparing to file a new drug application for HyBryte for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma later this year. We are grateful for NJ Economic Development Authority’s (NJEDA) continued support of its biotechnology industry. This is also our third year receiving the HMRC tax credit, to date we have received $0.5 million to support our clinical trials in the UK."

The NJEDA program enables approved technology and biotechnology businesses to sell their unused NOL Carryovers and unused R&D Tax Credits to unaffiliated, profitable corporate taxpayers in the state of New Jersey. This allows businesses with NOLs to turn their tax losses and credits into cash proceeds to fund additional R&D, purchase equipment and/or facilities, or cover other allowable expenditures. The NJEDA determines eligibility for the program, the NJ Division of Taxation determines the value of the available tax benefits (NOLs and R&D Tax Credits), and the NJ Commission on Science and Technology evaluates the technology and its viability. The State of NJ was the originator of this program and the first state to implement and fund it.

The HMRC R&D Tax Credit Program supports companies that work on innovative projects in science and technology in the UK. It can be claimed by a range of companies that seek to research or develop an advance in their field.