On February 9, 2025 TheraPPI Bioscience ("TheraPPI"), a preclinical biotechnology company focused on developing small molecules that modify protein interactions, reported the first closing of its Pre-Seed financing (Press release, TheraPPI, FEB 9, 2025, View Source [SID1234657194]). All investors have substantial experience in the biotech sector.

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TheraPPI will use the proceeds today’s announced to advance the development of its lead program targeting ERK/MyD88, a novel protein interaction in the Ras-MAPK pathway to tackle cancer drug resistance and to offer more effective and safer therapies to patients with advanced cancers.

TheraPPI also announced the inception of TheraPPI Bioscience SA (Geneva, Switzerland) and the nomination of a Board of Directors of this new company. Patricia Delaite, MD, a clinical oncologist and executive in biotech companies, joins the company’s Board as Chairwoman. John Tchelingerian, PhD, a serial entrepreneur and private investor in the biotech sector, and Barthélemy Helg, LL. M. & MBA, an executive in the biotech and food tech sectors, join the company’s Board as independent Directors. Luc Otten, MD, PhD, founder CEO, and Toufic Renno, PhD, founder CSO of TheraPPI, are also Board Directors.

"TheraPPI is developing a first-in-class drug for bringing efficacious therapy to patients with cancer who can’t any longer benefit from modern targeted therapies or immunotherapies. TheraPPI lead program tackles a real unmet medical need by fighting cancer drug resistance, a major cause of death. I am deeply honoured to support TheraPPI on this exciting journey" said Patricia Delaite. "Thanks to the support of our new investors, our Board of Directors, and this open Pre-Seed financing round, we are moving forward by expediting TheraPPI’s lead program and preparing additional developments. The combination of long experience in both academia and industry from the team with strong corporate governance provides a solid foundation for future TheraPPI successes," added Luc Otten.

On February 9, 2025 CARsgen Therapeutics Holdings Limited (Stock Code: 2171.HK), a company focused on innovative CAR T-cell therapies for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, reported that the first subject treated with an allogeneic BCMA CAR-T therapy developed on the THANK-u Plus platform, has achieved stringent complete response (sCR) and minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity at the Day-28 assessment (Press release, Carsgen Therapeutics, FEB 9, 2025, View Source [SID1234650118]).

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The patient, diagnosed with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, IgA-λ type (R-ISS Stage II), had previously undergone three lines of combination therapy along with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. After disease progression following the most recent treatment, the patient was enrolled in the clinical trial. Following infusion of CAR‑T cells at the lowest dose level according to the clinical protocol, the patient experienced Grade 1 cytokine release syndrome (CRS), which was effectively managed with antipyretics and tocilizumab, and the patient did not show immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) or other CAR-T-related immune adverse events, demonstrating an overall favorable safety profile.

This CAR-T therapy is developed for the treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (R/R MM) and relapsed/refractory plasma cell leukemia (R/R PCL). Additional data updates are anticipated in the second half of this year.

"Developed in-house, the THANK-u Plus platform is an innovative allogeneic CAR-T technology designed to overcome the accessibility challenges in CAR-T therapy. The expansion of CAR-T cells and the preliminary positive efficacy observed in the first subject further reinforce our confidence in the future of allogeneic CAR-T products development. We extend our sincere gratitude to the investigators for their invaluable collaboration and to the patients for participating in this trial—efforts that accelerate our mission to address unmet medical needs," said Dr. Zonghai Li, Founder, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Scientific Officer of CARsgen Therapeutics.

About THANK-u Plus

CARsgen has developed the THANK-u Plus platform as an enhanced version of its proprietary THANK-uCAR allogeneic CAR-T technology to address the potential impact of NKG2A expression levels on therapeutic efficacy. THANK-u Plus demonstrates sustained expansion regardless of varying NKG2A expression levels on NK cells and exhibits significantly improved expansion compared to THANK-uCAR. Preclinical studies show that THANK-u Plus delivers superior antitumor efficacy in the presence of NK cells compared to THANK-uCAR. Allogeneic BCMA or dual-targeting CD19/CD20 CAR-T cells developed using this platform exhibit robust antitumor activity in the presence of NK cells, indicating that THANK-u Plus has broad potential for developing diverse allogeneic CAR-T therapies.

On February 8, 2025 LaNova Medicines Ltd. reported CDE has granted LM-108 (anti-CCR8 mAb) Breakthrough Therapy Designation (Press release, LaNova Medicines, FEB 8, 2025, View Source [SID1234656016]). This designation is for the treatment of patients with advanced solid tumors who have disease progression following immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment and are microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR).

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On February 7, 2025 AIGEN Sciences reported that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Mepsgen (CEO Kim Yong-tae) to collaborate on the goal of efficient, innovative new drug development.

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Through this agreement, the two companies will explore ways to reduce bottlenecks in the new drug development process and implement more precise data analysis and efficient in vitro experimental models by combining Eigenscience’s AI-based new drug development platform and Mepsgen’s microphysiological system (MPS) technology.

Specifically, the company plans to verify new drug candidates designed and developed using Eigenscience’s AI platform using Mepsgen’s bio-tissue chips, and to continuously update the AI ​​platform by analyzing the efficacy and toxicity of the initial candidates.

Furthermore, by combining existing toxicity data held by Eisenscience with bio-tissue chip experiment data, we plan to establish a new research paradigm that predicts side effects in advance and verifies the safety of new drugs without animal testing by repeating this process.

This is expected to predict the likelihood of clinical trial success and dramatically shorten the existing new drug development period. The two organizations plan to continue strengthening their collaboration by building and expanding their global network.

"This agreement provides an opportunity to take MepsGen’s MPS technology to the next level and will serve as an important example of how AI technology can bring innovation to the new drug development process," said Jae-Woo Kang, CEO of Aizen Science.

"We expect to be able to accumulate highly reliable MPS data through our collaboration with Eisenscience, which will enable us to support more efficient and rapid new drug development," said Kim Yong-tae, CEO of Mepsgen.

(Press release, AIGEN Sciences, FEB 7, 2025, View Source;wr_id=53 [SID1234661232])

On February 7, 2025 Oncolys BioPharma reported Non-consolidated Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2024 (Press release, Oncolys BioPharma, FEB 7, 2025, View Source [SID1234654152]).

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