On July 23, 2025 Akari Therapeutics, Plc (Nasdaq: AKTX), an oncology biotechnology company developing novel immuno-oncology payload antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of cancer, reported its commitment to ongoing research to better understand the multiple effects of its novel spliceosome modulator, PH1, having demonstrated it may also act to inhibit key drivers in cancer tumors (Press release, Akari Therapeutics, JUL 23, 2025, View Source [SID1234654668]).

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"We are excited to build on the scientific data already established for our novel PH1 spliceosome modulator payload with continued, ongoing research," commented Abizer Gaslightwala, President and CEO of Akari Therapeutics. "In addition to the cytotoxic and immuno-oncology modes of action for this payload, we have also demonstrated its ability to induce cytotoxicity in cancer cells under the influence of key oncogenic drivers such as KRAS, BRAF, and FGFR3 (Patent WO2024220546A2). As such, we are continuing to further investigate how this novel payload may impact other key drivers relevant to cancer tumors, and we look forward to releasing this key data in the near future."

Akari’s ADCs utilize its novel spliceosome modulator payload, PH1, and have the potential to significantly improve future oncology therapies based on current preclinical data demonstrating the following:

• Killing cancer cells while activating the immune system: In addition to killing cancer cells, spliceosome modulation by the PH1 payload causes the accumulation of mis-spliced proteins, generating neoantigens that activate the immune system to further attack the cancer tumor.

• Reducing off-target toxicity: Linker is engineered to only release PH1 payload intracellularly within targeted cancer cells to mitigate off-target toxicity.

• Circumventing traditional cancer resistance mechanisms: PH1 is resistant to standard efflux transporters that can cause cancer cells to become resistant to current payloads used on ADCs.

Akari continues to build on this key data for its spliceosome modulator payload with further research ongoing on how the payload can also disrupt key drivers responsible for cancer cell growth. Preliminary data from additional preclinical research experiments testing activity of PH1 against an established oncogenic driver unique to a major tumor are expected before year-end.

On July 23, 2025 Dispatch Bio reported its official launch, with a mission to engineer a universal treatment across solid tumors, which represent approximately 90% of cancers worldwide (Press release, Dispatch Bio, JUL 23, 2025, View Source [SID1234654496]).

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Immunotherapies have struggled to effectively treat solid tumors due to two main challenges: the lack of a tumor-specific target and the presence of an immune-suppressive tumor microenvironment. Dispatch’s first-in-class Flare platform was specifically engineered to overcome both. It works by delivering a viral vector carrying a novel, universal antigen – called Flare – that precisely tags solid tumor cells while simultaneously breaking down the tumor’s inhibitory environment. Once in place, the Flare antigen acts as a beacon, directing the immune system to find and clear the cancer cells — without harming healthy tissue.

"At Dispatch, we are leveraging the ideal tumor target – one that is only expressed by the tumor cells in a patient – and advances in cell therapy engineering and immune system activation at the right place, at the right time, to get to deep and durable responses in cancer," said Sabah Oney, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Dispatch. "This work matters deeply to me, as it does to so many whose lives have been touched by cancer. We’ve built a strong scientific foundation, assembled an exceptional team and developed innovative technology that give us a real shot at making a difference. We are fully committed to doing everything we can for patients who urgently need new options."

Dispatch was established through a pivotal collaboration with the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) and convergence of groundbreaking technologies from the laboratories of Andy Minn, M.D., Ph.D.; Carl June, M.D.; Chris Garcia, Ph.D.; and Kole Roybal, Ph.D.

"With this confluence of innovative technologies from the labs across PICI, we are poised to shift how cancer therapies are conceived," said Sean Parker, founder and chairman of PICI, as well as a member of Dispatch’s board of directors. "We can now pursue the ultimate goal – a universal cure for most solid tumor cancers – using cutting-edge modalities."

Renowned Leadership and Pioneering Scientists

Since its founding in 2022, Dispatch has focused on building a world-class leadership team and executing its broad pipeline of programs. The founding team at Dispatch includes:

Scientific Co-Founders

Andy Minn, M.D., Ph.D., Chair of Immuno-Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Carl June, M.D., PICI Center Director and the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Chris Garcia, Ph.D., Professor of Structural Biology and Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford University
Kole Roybal, Ph.D., PICI Center Director and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at University of California, San Francisco
Board of Directors

Jeff Marrazzo, Chairman; Co-founder and Former CEO, Spark Therapeutics
Jake Bauer, Venture Partner, ARCH Venture Partners
John Connolly, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, PICI
Robert Nelsen, Co-founder and Managing Director, ARCH Venture Partners
Sabah Oney, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, Dispatch
Sean Parker, Founder and Chairman, PICI
Steve Gillis, Ph.D., Managing Director, ARCH Venture Partners
Leadership Team

Sabah Oney, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer
Barbra Sasu, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer
Chris Wiwi, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Technical Operations
Jennifer Flaisher, Chief People and Culture Officer
Lex Johnson, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Platform Officer
Naveen Bazaj, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development
Scientific Advisory Board

Kole Roybal, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco; SAB Chairman
Andy Minn, M.D., Ph.D., Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Anusha Kalbasi, M.D., Stanford University
Brad Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Carl June, M.D., University of Pennsylvania
Chris Garcia, Ph.D., Stanford University
Christine Brown, Ph.D., City of Hope
David Kirn, M.D., 4D Molecular Therapeutics; University of California, Berkeley
John Connolly, Ph.D., PICI
Kristen Hege, M.D., University of California, San Francisco
Lisa Coussens, M.D., Ph.D., FAACR, Oregon Health & Science University
Matt Porteus, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University
Series A Funding to Support First-in-Human Studies

The Series A syndicate includes founding investors ARCH Venture Partners and PICI, along with Bristol Myers Squibb, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, and Alexandria Venture Investments. With this recently closed funding round, Dispatch has raised a total of $216 million to date.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance the company’s therapeutic candidates into first-in-human clinical studies and beyond, with the first program expected to enter the clinic in 2026.

"We are on the wave of a revolution in cancer therapy, where innovations like Dispatch’s tumor-agnostic approach to immunotherapy have the potential to treat a majority of solid tumors," said Steve Gillis, Ph.D., board member of Dispatch and managing director at ARCH Venture Partners. "We are excited to support the Dispatch team as they continue to advance their programs."

On July 23, 2025 bioAffinity Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIAF; BIAFW), a biotechnology company addressing the need for noninvasive, accurate tests for the detection of early-stage cancer, reported a compelling new case study in which CyPath Lung identified a Stage 1A neuroendocrine tumor in the patient’s lung after PET scan, bronchoscopies and a serum tumor marker test suggested it was non-cancerous inflammation (Press release, BioAffinity Technologies, JUL 23, 2025, View Source [SID1234654495]).

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"We believe that this patient’s experience demonstrates the high added value that CyPath Lung brings to the diagnostic pathway. Multiple procedures and diagnostic tools were inconclusive, failing to identify the 13mm lung nodule as cancer," said Gordon Downie, MD, PhD, bioAffinity Technologies’ Chief Medical Officer. "So when her CyPath Lung test returned a ‘likely cancer’ result, it clarified appropriate next steps. The end result was surgical removal of a Stage 1A neuroendocrine tumor, a cancer type that can be difficult to detect by imaging and bronchoscopy alone, early enough for potentially life-saving treatment."

The female patient, an 80-year-old former smoker, had less than a 15-pack-year history and quit smoking in 1999. She had stable pulmonary function until a COVID-19 infection left her with asthma symptoms, including wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath, which responded to inhalers. A low dose CT in October 2023 revealed a 13mm nodule in the right lower lobe, but a PET scan showed low metabolic activity and risk models placed the likelihood of malignancy around 16%.

Initial diagnostic workups – including bronchoscopy and serum markers – indicated inflammation or infection without malignancy, and the patient was placed on a surveillance plan with antibiotics and asthma management. Follow-up LDCT scans in January and July 2024 were stable.

In early 2025, a new upper respiratory infection prompted repeat imaging, which showed that the nodule was growing. A second bronchoscopy again returned no evidence of malignancy. Her physician ordered CyPath Lung for further risk assessment. The CyPath Lung test, reported on March 4, 2025, returned a high score of 0.72, indicating the likelihood of cancer.

Based on the CyPath Lung result, the patient was referred for robotic wedge resection in June 2025, and pathology confirmed a Stage 1A neuroendocrine tumor.

"We believe that this case underscores CyPath Lung’s growing importance as an essential adjunct to low-dose CT scans for patients with indeterminate pulmonary nodules when imaging and traditional tools leave questions unanswered," bioAffinity Technologies President and CEO Maria Zannes said.

About CyPath Lung

CyPath Lung uses proprietary advanced flow cytometry and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify cell populations in patient sputum that indicate malignancy. Automated data analysis helps determine if cancer is present or if the patient is cancer-free. CyPath Lung incorporates a fluorescent porphyrin that is preferentially taken up by cancer and cancer-related cells. Clinical study results demonstrated that CyPath Lung had 92% sensitivity, 87% specificity and 88% accuracy in detecting lung cancer in patients at high risk for the disease who had small lung nodules less than 20 millimeters. Diagnosing and treating early-stage lung cancer can improve outcomes and increase patient survival. For more information, visit www.cypathlung.com.

On July 23, 2025 Crossbow Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing T-Bolt therapies, a novel class of T-cell receptor (TCR)-mimetic antibody therapeutics, reported the nomination of its second development candidate, CBX-663, for the treatment of a broad range of solid tumor and hematologic malignancies (Press release, Crossbow Therapeutics, JUL 23, 2025, View Source [SID1234654494]). The next-generation T-cell engager targets telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), a protein that drives tumor growth and is expressed in up to 95% of cancers.1,2

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CBX-663, a bispecific antibody, binds to TERT-derived peptide human leukocyte antigen (pHLA) complexes on the surface of tumor cells and activates T-cells through a CD3-binding arm. The molecule includes two binding domains for TERT, which increase its ability to engage tumor cells and boost immune activation.

"CBX-663 illustrates how Crossbow’s TCR-mimetic platform can unlock new opportunities for antibody-based cancer therapies," said Briggs Morrison, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Crossbow. "With strong preclinical performance selectively targeting a pHLA expressed across a broad range of cancers, CBX-663 has the potential to offer a meaningful new treatment option for patients with limited therapeutic options."

In preclinical studies, CBX-663 drove potent, antigen-specific tumor killing across multiple TERT-positive cancer models, with minimal activity against TERT-negative or HLA-mismatched cells. The candidate also demonstrated a favorable safety profile and pharmacokinetics comparable to conventional antibody therapies. Crossbow presented data summarizing the initial characterization of CBX-663 at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper).

Although TERT resides inside the cell, HLA molecules can present fragments of the protein, known as peptides, on the tumor surface. CBX-663 recognizes one of those peptides, the HLA-A*02:01-restricted TERT540 peptide, and redirects T-cells to attack tumor cells. CBX-663 demonstrated broad cytotoxic activity in vitro in both solid and hematologic cancer cell lines, as well as in primary patient samples ex vivo. In vivo studies further confirmed its anti-tumor efficacy and tolerability.

"CBX-663 reflects the depth of antibody discovery and protein engineering that underpins our T-Bolt platform and our ability to generate highly selective, potent molecules against difficult cancer targets," said Dmitri Wiederschain, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Crossbow. "Its performance in preclinical models reinforces the promise of TCR-mimetic therapeutics, and we’re excited to continue advancing this program."

Crossbow discovered and developed CBX-663 through its proprietary T-Bolt platform, which uses optimized antibody libraries and precision screening to find high-affinity, specific binders to intracellular tumor antigens displayed as pHLA complexes.

The nomination of CBX-663 underscores the platform’s potential to deliver a scalable pipeline of T-cell engagers for difficult-to-treat cancers.

On July 23, 2025 Lantern Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRN), a clinical-stage oncology company leveraging its proprietary RADR artificial intelligence (AI) platform to systematically transform drug discovery paradigms, reported that a heavily pretreated patient with aggressive Grade 3 non-germinal center B-cell diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) achieved a complete metabolic response in the ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial of LP-284 (Press release, Lantern Pharma, JUL 23, 2025, View Source [SID1234654493]). This represents the first complete response observed with LP-284 and displays profound clinical activity in one of the most therapeutically challenging hematologic cancers.

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The RADR-driven, AI approach enables Lantern to rapidly determine mechanisms of action of any cancer focused molecule, identify biomarker-driven subpopulations and optimize combination strategies for the clinical setting.

The 41-year-old patient had previously failed three aggressive treatment regimens over 18 months over the last 15 months. These included: standard R-CHOP/Pola-R-CHP chemotherapy, CAR-T cell therapy (liso-cel), and CD3xCD20 bispecific antibody therapy (glofitamab). Following enrollment in April 2025, the patient achieved complete metabolic response with non-avid lesions after completing just two 28-day cycles of LP-284 administered on days one, eight, and 15. This remarkable clinical outcome supports LP-284’s synthetic lethal mechanism and is an initial step towards a potential new paradigm for treating refractory aggressive lymphomas and B-cell malignancies.

Paradigm-Shifting Observation of Complete Response in Therapeutically Exhausted Patient

"This extraordinary clinical observation represents a transformative moment for our computationally guided, therapeutic development paradigm," said Panna Sharma, President and CEO of Lantern Pharma. "Our RADR platform’s systematic analysis of molecular vulnerabilities enabled us to rapidly advance LP-284 from computational concept to a clinical milestone in a patient in under three years at approximately $3 million — demonstrating how AI-driven precision has the promise to fundamentally reshape pharmaceutical innovation. This complete metabolic response in a patient who had exhausted all conventional therapeutic options strongly supports our strategic thesis that computational approaches can unlock previously inaccessible therapeutic opportunities."

LP-284, a computationally optimized next-generation acylfulvene, was systematically developed with guidance from Lantern’s RADR platform to exploit synthetic lethal interactions in cancer cells harboring specific DNA damage repair deficiencies. The compound represents a fundamentally different therapeutic strategy with the potential to preferentially target malignant cells while preserving healthy tissue function — a precision approach aimed at delivering transformative clinical benefit for patients who have failed multiple prior treatment modalities.

Potential to Address a Critical Therapeutic Void in Refractory DLBCL

This patient’s clinical journey exemplifies the devastating trajectory of aggressive DLBCL in the refractory setting. Despite achieving an initial complete metabolic response with CAR-T therapy (liso-cel) at day 30, the patient experienced disease progression by day 90. Subsequent treatment with the CD3xCD20 bispecific antibody glofitamab resulted in progressive disease with multifocal new lesions. At study entry on the LP-284-Phase 1 trial in April 2025, the patient presented with extensive multifocal bony lesions across thoracic and lumbar spine locations and hips — representing an extremely challenging clinical scenario.

The achievement of complete metabolic response with non-avid lesions following just two cycles of LP-284 therapy represents a potential future paradigm-shifting alternative for treating therapeutically exhausted DLBCL patients. This encouraging outcome underscores LP-284’s potential to address critical gaps in the therapeutic armamentarium for patients who have failed both conventional and cutting-edge immunotherapeutic approaches.

Advancing Strategic Clinical Development and Global Expansion

The complete metabolic response achievement positions LP-284 for accelerated development pathways and strengthens Lantern’s strategic position in the competitive hematologic oncology landscape. This clinical milestone provides important confirmation of the company’s systematic approach to therapeutic development and creates additional opportunities for international partnership expansion and collaborative research initiatives.

Lantern’s ongoing Phase 1 dose-escalation study (NCT06132503) is designed to evaluate LP-284’s safety profile, optimal dosing parameters, and preliminary efficacy signals across multiple aggressive lymphoma subtypes.

The trial’s systematic design enables precise evaluation of LP-284’s therapeutic potential across genetically defined patient populations, with a current focus on aggressive NHL subtypes including mantle cell lymphoma and high-grade B-cell lymphomas. LP-284’s multiple FDA Orphan Drug Designations position the compound for potential expedited regulatory pathways and enhanced market exclusivity frameworks.

Transforming Global Oncology Through Computational Precision

This clinical development provides important confirmation of the transformative potential of Lantern’s RADR platform, which leverages over 200 billion oncology-focused data points and 200+ machine learning algorithms to assist in systematically identifying and optimizing therapeutic opportunities. The platform’s computational efficiency enabled Lantern to rapidly advance the LP-284’s program into the clinic in under three years at a cost of approximately $3 million — representing striking development efficiency compared to traditional pharmaceutical paradigms.

The complete metabolic response achievement positions LP-284 to seek a future role within a global blood cancer market focused on B-cell cancer that is estimated at $4 billion annually, with DLBCL representing the largest aggressive lymphoma subtype affecting approximately 200,000 patients globally each year. The critical unmet need in refractory/relapsed settings represents a substantial commercial opportunity for innovative therapeutic approaches that can deliver meaningful clinical benefit to therapeutically exhausted patient populations.

Next Steps and Future Development

Lantern plans to continue enrollment in the Phase 1 trial while closely monitoring the responding patient and other potential future patients for durability of response and efficacy signals. The company anticipates providing additional clinical updates as the trial progresses and more patients reach evaluable timepoints.

The complete response achievement positions LP-284 for potential accelerated development pathways and creates opportunities for strategic partnerships as Lantern advances its synthetic lethal portfolio toward later-stage clinical trials.

About LP-284

LP-284 is an investigational next-generation acylfulvene designed to exploit synthetic lethal interactions in cancer cells with DNA damage repair deficiencies. Developed with guidance from Lantern’s AI platform RADR, LP-284 represents a novel therapeutic approach with potential to address critical gaps in the treatment of relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other hematologic malignancies. The compound is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial (NCT06132503) to determine its safety profile, optimal dosing, and potential activity in patients with aggressive NHL subtypes who have failed standard therapies.

LP-284 has received multiple Orphan Drug Designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including designations for mantle cell lymphoma and high-grade B-cell lymphomas, recognizing its potential to address significant unmet medical needs in rare cancer populations.