On April 8, 2024 Starpharma reported it has entered into a strategic partnership with Medicxi, a leading life sciences investment firm dedicated to financing companies developing innovative medicines, to co-found a new UK-based company called Petalion Therapeutics Limited ("Petalion") (Press release, Starpharma, APR 8, 2024, View Source;mc_eid=bf52dd3418 [SID1234641853]).

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Petalion will initially focus on developing novel targeted dendrimer-drug conjugate therapies in oncology, utilising Starpharma’s proprietary DEP dendrimer platform technology.

Medicxi will fund Petalion with an initial investment of up to USD $25 million (~AUD $38 million) to finance the development of a novel oncology drug candidate. Starpharma will license certain intellectual property ("IP") to Petalion as required for the research, development, manufacture and commercialisation of this potential new therapeutic and, in exchange, will receive an equity holding of 22.5% in Petalion.

Collaboration Agreement

Under the terms of the collaboration, Starpharma will license the IP to Petalion on an exclusive basis for a mutually agreed target. In consideration for the IP licence to this specific target, Starpharma will be issued ordinary shares in Petalion. Starpharma will also provide R&D services to Petalion on a fee for service basis.

Medicxi intends to finance Petalion’s development program via a tranched investment plan with defined scientific and technical milestones, culminating in a total investment of up to USD $25 million.

Dr Mehdi Shahidi, a highly experienced pharmaceutical executive, has been appointed as CEO of Petalion. A clinical oncologist by background, Dr Shahidi has over two decades of experience in pharmaceutical drug development, most recently as Corporate Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, and Global Head of Medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim.

Dr Mehdi Shahidi, CEO of Petalion and Venture Partner at Medicxi, commented:

"I am deeply honoured and thrilled to be leading this ground-breaking endeavour created by Medicxi and Starpharma. Leveraging Starpharma’s world-leading technology and the scientific domain expertise from Medicxi’s asset-centric investment platform, our team at Petalion aims to develop best-in-class dendrimer conjugates with differentiated properties. Our ultimate goal is to cultivate a targeted dendrimer-based drug that can effectively address unmet needs in cancer."

Shyam Masrani, Principal at Medicxi and Board representative of Petalion, commented:

"While the field of targeted conjugates has experienced remarkable growth and led to the approval of several treatment options for patients with cancer, it is also evident that the current approaches have limitations. Medicxi is excited to support Petalion under the leadership of Dr Shahidi from the outset and we look forward to working closely with the Starpharma team to develop a highly differentiated and effective new medicine."

Cheryl Maley, CEO of Starpharma, commented:

"We are excited to announce this strategic partnership, which combines Starpharma’s expertise in developing dendrimer technology with Medicxi’s success in converting development candidates into high-value commercial assets. If successful, the oncology therapies that Petalion will develop have the potential to become an important treatment modality for a potentially wide range of cancer indications.

"Medicxi is a highly innovative organisation with extensive experience in drug development and commercialisation. Their investment in this partnership validates the strong potential of Starpharma’s DEP dendrimer technology as a novel drug delivery platform.

"This is just one of many ongoing efforts to prioritise the commercialisation of Starpharma’s DEP platform and our partnerships to advance the application of the DEP technology in high-value novel therapeutic areas."

On April 8, 2024 Medigene AG (Medigene or the "Company", FSE: MDG1, Prime Standard), an immuno-oncology platform company focusing on the discovery and development of T cell immunotherapies for solid tumors, reported superior recombinant T cell receptor (rTCR) engineered T cell functionality as well as a favorable safety profile when rTCR-T cells are armored and enhanced with the PD1-41BB costimulatory switch protein (CSP) at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2024 taking place April 5-10, 2024, in San Diego, USA (Press release, MediGene, APR 8, 2024, View Source [SID1234641844]).
The poster presentation with the title "TCR-gated control of costimulatory switch protein (CSP) activation in rTCR-T cells expressing PD1-41BB" is available on Medigene’s website at View Source

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Targeting solid tumors with TCR-T therapies still faces significant challenges. Impaired T cell functionality and T cell exhaustion are driven by several factors within the hostile solid tumor microenvironment (TME). Programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1), expressed by tumor cells in the TME engages the programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) expressed by activated T cells and induces T cell exhaustion and facilitates tumor immune escape. This is one major factor that allows cancer cells to proliferate and metastasize without being recognized by the host immune system. To counteract this inhibitory mechanism, a PD1-41BB CSP can be co-expressed in rTCR-T cells, turning an inhibitory signal mediated via the PD-1-PD-L1 axis into a costimulatory signal that improves TCR-T cell functionality.

"Medigene’s End-to-End Platform provides differentiated approaches to address the key challenges, including the immunosuppressive TME of solid tumors, in developing effective, safe and durable TCR-T therapies. The PD1-41BB CSP is our proprietary armoring and enhancement technology that improves immune function and persistence of TCR-T cells in the TME, resulting in better efficacy and sustained anti-cancer immune responses," said Dolores Schendel, Chief Scientific Officer of Medigene. "This latest data from our lead program MDG1015, a first-in-class, 3rd generation TCR-T therapy targeting NY-ESO-1/ LAGE-1a, armored and enhanced with our PD1-41BB CSP, shows the gating of the PD1-41BB effects through prior cancer antigen engagement with our 3S TCR. It represents a safe and effective approach to improve clinical outcomes in hard-to-treat solid tumor indications such as gastric cancer, ovarian cancer, myxoid/round cell liposarcoma, and synovial sarcoma. Based on our positive interactions for MDG1015 with regulatory authorities, we look forward to progressing our package for IND / CTA submission and expect to receive IND/CTA approval in the second half of 2024."

The data presented in the poster demonstrated that the CSP-mediated costimulatory signal is TCR-gated, such that costimulation only takes place when a specific peptide-human leukocyte antigen (pHLA) complex is present on a tumor cell and triggers a signal through the rTCR expressed by the TCR-T cells. Enhanced, gated T cell functionality of CSP-armored rTCR-T cells increased secretion of interferon-γ (IFNγ) only when tumor cells simultaneously expressed the pHLA target antigen and PD-L1. In addition, CSP-armored rTCR-T cells showed high sensitivity in recognition of diverse tumor cell lines of different tissue origin, such as melanoma, sarcoma, and gastric cancer which varied in levels of pHLA and PD-L1 in vitro. Rapid and sustained killing of 3D tumor cell-derived spheroids only occurred when PD-L1-positive tumor cells simultaneously expressed the specific pHLA target antigen.

Importantly, no recognition of healthy cells occurred if they lacked the pHLA target antigen, irrespective of PD-L1 expression, underpinning the safety of combining the CSP with a rTCR to generate rTCR-T cells that displayed no signs of toxicity for diverse healthy tissues in vitro.

On April 8, 2024 Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company, reported poster presentations featuring its CF33 oncolytic virotherapy VAXINIA and B cell immunotherapy HER-Vaxx at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 5-10 April 2024, in San Diego, CA.

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Daneng Li, M.D., a City of Hope associate professor in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research commented, "The results show that our novel oncolytic virus — both alone or in combination with immunotherapy — has the ability to control various cancer types previously resistant to other treatment options, and these early results provide patients with hope of a new treatment option for cancers refractory to standard treatment."

Imugene Managing Director & CEO Leslie Chong said: "Preliminary data from the MAST trial demonstrates encouraging anti-tumour activity with our oncolytic virus CF33-hNIS (VAXINIA). Notably, one patient with cholangiocarcinoma, or biliary tract cancer, achieved an immunological complete response (CR), meaning the disappearance of all signs of their cancer after treatment with VAXINIA, with no known recurrence after one year. These encouraging results warrant further investigation in patients will biliary tract cancer and other cancers. In addition, further analysis of the T cell repertoire reveals that T cell diversity may serve a predictive biomarker, which can be used to prospectively identify appropriate patients for treatment."

Details on the poster presentations are below:

Presentation Title: Oncolytic virus CF33-hNIS for the treatment of advanced cancer
Abstract Presentation Number: CT182
Session Date and Time: Tuesday April 9, 2024, 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM PT
Session Title: First-in-Human Phase I Clinical Trials 2
Presenter: Daneng Li, MD
Highlights include:

At the data cut-off of 19 December 2023, there were 31 efficacy-evaluable patients in the MAST study. In the intratumoural (IT) cohorts, 7 of 16 (44%) injected lesions had a reduction in tumour burden and 3 lesions were completely eradicated.Three of the IT treated patients had an objective response: 1 complete response by iRECIST in a patient with cholangiocarcinoma and 2 partial responses by RECIST inpatients with melanoma. In the intravenous (IV) cohorts, 9 of 17 (53%) patients achieved stable disease as their best response. Patients who received prior checkpoint blockade therapy derived clinical benefit with and without pembrolizumab. Viral replication, assessed by SPECT, was higher in patients who had a reduction in tumour burden.
Patients with a higher level of T cell diversity in peripheral blood (pre-treatment)respond better to VAXINIA therapy, consistent with the known mechanism of action of oncolytic virotherapies and their ability to promote an anti-tumour T cell response.
Both IT- and IV-treated patients have promising immunological changes in on-treatment tumour biopsies (including increases in cancer fighting CD8 T cells and PD-L1 expression) indicated that VAXINIA can transform the tumour microenvironment.
Several patients have had prior treatment with checkpoint blockade, including astable disease cholangiocarcinoma patient and two melanoma partial response patients. This suggests that VAXINIA +/- checkpoint inhibitor combination could be used in the checkpoint therapy refractory setting, which is seeing a growing and unmet market in oncology, by altering the tumour microenvironment.

Presentation Title: Frontline vaccination with the B-cell peptide compound HER-Vaxx (IMU-131), combined with standard-of-care chemotherapy induces high levels of HER2-specific antibodies mediating ADCC and intracellular phosphorylation inhibition resulting in overall survival benefit in patients with HER2+ metastatic or advanced gastric/GEJ adenocarcinoma – Final results from Phase II/HERIZON study
Poster Number: CT215
Session Date and Time: Tuesday April 9, 2024, 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM PT
Session Title: Phase II Clinical Trials 1
Presenter: Joshua Tobias Ph.D.
Highlights include:

HER-Vaxx treatment produced robust anti-HER2-IgG and IgG1 antibody response (p<0.001).
HER-Vaxx induced HER2-specific antibodies able to mediate antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC) and inhibit intracellular HER2 phosphorylation and correlated with tumour reduction.
The HER-Vaxx induced HER2-specific antibodies demonstrate a similar mechanism of action to HERCEPTIN validating B cell immunotherapy as an alternative anti-cancer agent to monoclonal antibodies.
About the MAST Trial
The multicenter Phase 1 MAST trial commenced by delivering a low dose of VAXINIA to patients with metastatic or advanced solid tumours who have had at least two prior lines of standard of care treatment. The City of Hope-developed oncolytic virus has been shown to shrink colon, lung, breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancer tumours in preclinical laboratory and animal models¹. Overall, the study aims to recruit cancer patients across approximately 10 trial sites in the United States and Australia.
The clinical trial is titled "A Phase I, Dose Escalation Safety and Tolerability Study of VAXINIA (CF33- hNIS), Administered Intratumorally or Intravenously as a Monotherapy or in Combination with Pembrolizumab in Adult Patients with Metastatic or Advanced Solid Tumours (MAST)." The trial commenced in May 2022 and is anticipated to run for approximately 24 months while being funded from existing budgets and resources. Full study details can also be found on clinicaltrials.gov under study ID: NCT05346484.

On April 7, 2024 Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co., Ltd ("Junshi Biosciences", HKEX: 1877; SSE: 688180), a leading innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel therapies, reported that the National Medical Products Administration ("NMPA") has approved the supplemental new drug application ("sNDA") for toripalimab (product code: JS001) in combination with axitinib for the first-line treatment of patients with medium to high risk unresectable or metastatic renal cell carcinoma ("RCC") (Press release, Shanghai Junshi Bioscience, APR 7, 2024, View Source [SID1234656135]). This is the first approved immunotherapy for renal carcinoma in China.

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Renal carcinoma is the third most common malignancy of the urinary system globally, and RCC accounts for 80%~90% of all cases of renal carcinoma. There were approximately 77,000 new cases of and 46,000 deaths due to renal carcinoma in China in 2022. Distant metastasis occurred in about one-third of renal carcinoma patients at initial diagnosis, and in 20%-50% of localized patients after nephrectomy. According to the risk classification of the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC), the median overall survival ("OS") of patients with low, medium and high risk metastatic RCC receiving anti-vascular targeted treatment were 35.3, 16.6 and 5.4 months, respectively. Therefore, compared to low-risk patients, the clinical needs for new treatment options are more urgent for patients with medium and high risk advanced RCC.

The approval of the sNDA is mainly based on data from the RENOTORCH study (NCT04394975), a multi-center, randomized, open-label, active-controlled Phase 3 clinical study led by principal investigators Professor Jun GUO from Peking University Cancer Hospital and Professor Yiran HUANG from Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. The study was conducted across 47 medical centers, and represents the first pivotal Phase 3 clinical study of immunotherapy for patients with advanced RCC in China.

A total of 421 randomized patients with medium to high risk unresectable or metastatic RCC were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive toripalimab in combination with axitinib (n=210) or sunitinib alone (n=211). The primary endpoint is progression free survival ("PFS") as assessed by the Independent Review Committee ("IRC"), and secondary endpoints include PFS as assessed by investigators, objective response rate ("ORR") as assessed by IRC or investigators, duration of response ("DoR"), disease control rate (DCR), OS, safety profile, etc.

Previously, the study results of RENOTORCH made its debut at the Proffered Paper Session of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) (Free ESMO Whitepaper) congress 2023. The full text was simultaneously published in Annals of Oncology, the official journal of ESMO (Free ESMO Whitepaper). The study data showed that, based on the assessment results of IRC, compared with sunitinib monotherapy, toripalimab in combination with axitinib for the treatment significantly prolonged the PFS of patients by nearly twofold (median PFS: 18.0 vs. 9.8 months, P=0.0028), and the risk of disease progression or death was reduced by 35% (hazard ratio [HR]=0.65; 95% CI: 0.49, 0.86). In addition, the ORR was higher (56.7% vs. 30.8%, P<0.0001) and the DoR was longer (median DoR: not reached vs 16.7 months; HR=0.61) in the toripalimab group. The OS of the toripalimab group also showed a clear trend of benefit (median OS: not reached vs 26.8 months), and the risk of death was reduced by 39% (HR=0.61; 95%CI: 0.40, 0.92). In terms of safety, toripalimab in combination with axitinib demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile, and no new safety signals were observed.

"From a global perspective, targeted therapy in combination with immunotherapy has become the standard treatment approach for advanced RCC," said Professor Jun GUO from Peking University Cancer Hospital. "However, no such treaments have been approved in China. The approval of toripalimab’s new indications opens a new chapter in combined targeted therapy and immunotherapy in China, and it will transform current clinical practices for advanced RCC and introduce new treatment options for medium to high-risk patients!"

"The treatment methods for advanced RCC are limited, especially for medium to high risk patients, who often face suboptimal prognoses," said Professor Yiran HUANG from Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine "The approval of toripalimab combined with axitinib addresses the gap in first-line immunotherapy for renal cancer in China. Compared to targeted monotherapy, toripalimab combined with targeted therapy will significantly improve patients’ PFS, offering promising prospects for many advanced RCC patients in China."

"Thank you to all medical professionals, patients, and R&D personnel involved in the RENOTORCH study for their contributions," said Dr. Jianjun ZOU, CEO of Junshi Biosciences. "Their dedication has led to a pioneering breakthrough in renal cancer, first of its kind in China! Junshi Biosciences will remain committed to addressing domestic clinical needs and continue investing in research and development to help patients live longer and better!"

On April 7, 2024, ImmuneOnco Biopharmaceuticals (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. reported that five innovative drug studies were accepted by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting in 2024, in which, they will be reported to global attendees in the form of oral presentations, posters and online publications (Press release, ImmuneOnco Biopharma, APR 7, 2024, View Source [SID1234655698]). It covers the latest clinical progress of IMM01(SIRP-IGG1 Fc), IMM0306 (CD47xCD20 mAb-Trap) and IMM2510 (VEGFxPD-L1 mAb-Trap).

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Two innovative clinical phase II studies of IMM01 were included in the oral reports (IMM01 combined with Tirelizumab for cHL indications after previous PD1 antibody treatment failure, and IMM01 combined with azacitide for high-risk MDS indications for initial treatment). A preliminary phase I clinical study of IMM0306 in the treatment of relapsed/refractory CD20-positive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) is presented in the form of poster. The results of the other two studies were presented in the form of online publication (the clinical phase Ib study of IMM0306 combined with lenalidomide in the treatment of relapsed/refractory CD20-positive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL), and the clinical phase I dose-climbing study of lMM2510 monotherapy in the treatment of advanced solid tumors).

Founder and chairman of ImmuneOnco Dr. Tian, Wenzhi said:

"The findings we will present at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) 2024 will help inform the industry about the latest clinical development data for IMM01, IMM0306, and IMM2510." IMM01 is the first SIRP-α-FC fusion protein to enter the clinical stage in China being developed to use in combination with other drugs to treat a variety of blood tumors and solid tumors. Based on the initial effectiveness and good safety in clinical trials of monotherapy, as well as the clinical research data of IMM01 in clinical phase II treatment of cHL and MDS patients presented at the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) annual meeting, it will again prove that the differentiated molecular design of IMM01 perfectly solves the clinical safety problems commonly faced by CD47 antibody drug candidates. Our IMM01 has great potential to become the world’s first approved CD47-targeting drug. IMM0306 is another CD47-targeted macromolecule that has shown encouraging efficacy and a good safety profile in Phase I clinical studies in relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphomas. The Phase II clinical study of IMM0306 combined with lenalidomide is rapidly progressing, and the initial clinical performance is quite exciting. We believe that the differentiated molecular design of CD47-targeted drugs will be a key determinant of success in clinical development. IMM2510 is a bispecific molecule targeting VEGF and PD-L1, and has shown positive therapeutic signals against advanced non-small cell lung cancer (adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma) and thymic carcinoma. We are pleased to have the opportunity to share these data with our oncology colleagues and look forward to further releases of clinical data from IMM01, IMM0306, and IMM2510."

Chief Medical Officer/Senior Vice President of ImmuneOnco Dr. Lu, Qiying said:

"Following the preliminary clinical phase II data disclosed in ASH (Free ASH Whitepaper) last year, the results of two clinical phase II studies on IMM01 products were recognized and affirmed by the academic community at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) this year, and were accepted as oral reports by ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) 2024; In addition, one research result of IMM0306 was displayed as a poster, and two research results were published online (clinical phase Ib results of IMM0306 combined with LEN and clinical phase I results of IMM2510). IMM01 is the company’s key product and one of the important cornerstones of our company in the field of tumor immunotherapy. In terms of clinical development layout of IMM01 products, we have carried out a differentiated tactics. For newly treated CMML patients, IMM01-02 is currently a prospective clinical study with the largest sample size for this rare tumor to meet the unmet medical needs. In view of the unmet medical needs of cHL after previous PD-1 failure, our combined treatment model can overcome the drug resistance of previous PD1 antibody therapy, and reflects the advantages of chemotherapy therapy, avoiding the long-term toxicity brought by chemotherapy drugs and bringing long-term quality of life to patients. Encouraging efficacy and good tolerability have been observed in initially treated high-risk MDS patients, initially treated CMML patients, and cHL patients after previous PD-1 antibody therapy failure. As one of the company’s key products, IMM0306 monotherapy was observed in a number of indications, outstanding initial efficacy (including FL and MZL mainly inert lymphoma and the most common clinical aggressive lymphoma DLBCL), indicating that this product has broad clinical development prospects. IMM2510 showed initial positive therapeutic signals in relapsed and refractory non-small cell lung cancer (adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma) and thymus cancer in the climbing study. In particular, one patient with lung squamous cell carcinoma obtained significant tumor shrinkage (PR) after the failure of PD-1 antibody therapy and combination chemotherapy, and the PR lasted more than 11 months. It has been receiving the investigational drug for more than 20 months and the treatment is still undergoing. In light of unmet clinical needs, we plan to further develop a single agent and a combination of different treatment modalities for multiple indications to explore efficacy in multiple solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer, triple negative breast cancer, and liver cancer in addition to soft tissue sarcomas. We look forward to rapidly advancing the clinical development of IMM01, IMM0306 and IMM2510 products, bringing new treatment options for the treatment of cancer patients and addressing unmet clinical needs."