BiomX Announces Preclinical Results of Analysis of Patient Samples and Engineering of Phage for Therapeutic Applications in Colorectal Cancer

On December 9, 2020 BiomX Inc. (NYSE American: PHGE), a clinical stage company developing natural and engineered phage therapies targeting specific pathogenic bacteria, reported the results of an analysis of presence of target bacteria, Fusobacterium nucleatum, in tumor samples obtained from patients with colorectal cancer and reported on progress in engineering of genetic payloads for therapeutic applications (Press release, BiomX, DEC 9, 2020, View Source [SID1234572542]). The analysis confirmed the presence of Fusobacterium nucleatum in over 80 percent of tumor samples obtained from patients with colorectal cancer and identified Fusobacterium nucleatum animalis as the most prevalent subspecie.

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In addition, the Company reported successful engineering of a functional fluorescence gene payload into Fusobacterium nucleatum phage and disclosed three candidate payloads which are being evaluated for delivery to the tumor microenvironment via phage. Candidate payloads include gene-encoding immune-stimulating proteins GM-CSF and IL-15 as well as the pro-drug converting enzyme cytosine deaminase. The BiomX colorectal cancer program utilizes phage therapy in combination with checkpoint inhibitors in order to target bacteria that are naturally present within tumors, with the aim of converting ‘cold’ tumors to ‘hot’ by delivering a payload to the tumor.

The results are featured in a poster presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) (Free ESMO Whitepaper) Immuno-Oncology Virtual Congress 2020 and will be available at the Company’s website at View Source Presentation details are as follows:

Title: Novel Analysis of Fusobacterium Nucleatum Subspecies in Human Colorectal Cancer and Engineering of Therapeutic Bacteriophage
Lead Author: Lihi Ninio-Many, Ph.D., Project Leader, BiomX

AngioDynamics to Report Fiscal 2021 Second Quarter Financial Results on January 7, 2021

On December 9, 2020 AngioDynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGO), a leading provider of innovative, minimally invasive medical devices for vascular access, peripheral vascular disease, and oncology, reported that it will report financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 before the market open on Thursday, January 7, 2021 (Press release, AngioDynamics, DEC 9, 2020, View Source [SID1234572541]). The Company’s management will host a conference call at 8:00 a.m. ET the same day to discuss the results.

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To participate in the conference call, dial 1-877-407-0784 (domestic) or +1-201-689-8560 (international) and refer to the passcode 13714154.

This conference call will also be webcast and can be accessed from the "Investors" section of the AngioDynamics website at www.angiodynamics.com. The webcast replay of the call will be available at the same site approximately one hour after the end of the call.

A recording of the call will also be available from 11:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, January 7, 2021, until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, January 14, 2021. To hear this recording, dial 1-844-512-2921 (domestic) or +1-412-317-6671 (international) and enter the passcode 13714154.

Lantheus Holdings Announces Acceptance and Priority Review of New Drug Application for PyLTM (18F-DCFPyL), a PSMA-Targeted Prostate Cancer PET Imaging Agent

On December 9, 2020 Lantheus Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: LNTH) (the Company), the parent company of Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc. and Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and a global leader in the development, manufacture and commercialization of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic agents and products, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the New Drug Application (NDA) for PyLTM (18F-DCFPyL), a prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agent for prostate cancer (Press release, Lantheus Medical Imaging, DEC 9, 2020, View Source [SID1234572540]).

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The FDA granted Priority Review for the PyL NDA and assigned a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) action date of May 28, 2021. The FDA has also indicated in the NDA filing acceptance notification that it is not currently planning to hold an advisory committee meeting to discuss the application.

"We are pleased that the FDA has accepted our PyL NDA for review and granted our application Priority Review, which is a significant milestone for Lantheus. We believe that there is a significant unmet need for reliable, targeted imaging in prostate cancer, particularly in the high risk and biochemically recurrent populations," said Istvan Molnar, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Lantheus. "We look forward to working with the FDA during the NDA review process with the goal of bringing PyL to patients and physicians who need it."

The PyL NDA is supported by data from two Company-sponsored pivotal studies (OSPREY and CONDOR) designed to establish the safety and diagnostic performance of PyL imaging across the prostate cancer disease continuum. Results from OSPREY Cohort A demonstrated improvement in specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) of PyL PET imaging over conventional imaging in men with high risk prostate cancer. OSPREY Cohort B and CONDOR studied men with prostate cancer in various disease states, including biochemical recurrent, hormone sensitive, non-metastatic castrate resistant, and metastatic castrate resistant. OSPREY Cohort B demonstrated the sensitivity of PyL PET imaging in detecting metastatic lesions, while CONDOR, in patients with biochemical recurrent prostate cancer and non-informative baseline findings, demonstrated PyL’s high correct localization rate and detection rate, including in patients with low PSA values. In the CONDOR study, 63.9% of patients had a change in intended disease management plans due to the PyL PET imaging results. We believe the results from these two studies, taken as a whole, demonstrate the ability of PyL to reliably detect and localize disease and could enable more appropriate patient management.

PyL has been administered in approximately 3,500 subjects globally, including the two Company-sponsored pivotal studies, multiple investigator sponsored studies, as well as clinical use reported in the literature. Across these studies, PyL has shown an attractive safety profile.

About PyL for PET Imaging of Prostate Cancer

PyL (also known as 18F-DCFPyL) is an investigational fluorinated PSMA-targeted PET imaging agent that enables visualization of localized prostate cancer as well as bone and soft tissue metastases to determine the presence or absence of recurrent and/or metastatic prostate cancer.

About OSPREY

The Phase 2/3 OSPREY trial assessed the diagnostic performance of PyL to detect prostate cancer in pelvic lymph nodes in subjects with high risk, locally advanced prostate cancer (Cohort A) and distant metastases in subjects with metastatic or recurrent prostate cancer (Cohort B). In the trial, the diagnostic performance of PyL in detecting disease in pelvic lymph nodes (Cohort A) showed specificity of 96-99%, sensitivity of 31-42%, and PPV of 78-91% although the trial did not meet one of its the primary endpoints. In the metastatic or recurrent prostate cancer setting (Cohort B), PyL exhibited sensitivity of 93-99% and PPV of 81-88% in detecting metastatic lesions. Overall, PyL demonstrated high diagnostic performance in reliably detecting nodal and distant metastatic prostate cancer.

About CONDOR

The Phase 3 CONDOR trial evaluated the diagnostic performance and clinical impact of PyL in men with biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer and uninformative baseline imaging based on conventional modalities. The CONDOR trial achieved its primary endpoint, with a correct localization rate (CLR) of 84.8% to 87.0% among the three blinded independent readers (the lower bound of the 95% confidence intervals ranging from 77.8% to 80.4%). CLR is based on positive predictive value, defined as the percentage of subjects with a one-to-one correspondence between localization of at least one lesion identified on PyL PET/CT and a composite truth standard comprised of histopathology, conventional imaging and/or changes in PSA levels following radiation therapy. 63.9% of subjects in the CONDOR trial had a change in intended disease management plans due to PyL imaging results, a key secondary endpoint of the trial. The changes to treatment management plans due to the PyL results included salvage local therapy to systemic therapy, observation to initiating therapy, noncurative systemic therapy to salvage local therapy, and planned treatment to observation.

About Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer affecting men in the United States — an estimated one in nine men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime. The American Cancer Society estimates that each year 192,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed, and 33,000 men will die of the disease. Approximately 3.2 million men in the United States currently count themselves among prostate cancer survivors.1

FOCUS Study Shows MammaPrint® Accurately Identifies Extremely Indolent Cancers

On December 9, 2020 Agendia, Inc., a world leader in precision oncology for breast cancer, reported that data from the FOCUS trial that show the clinical utility of MammaPrint in older breast cancer patients at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS 2020) (Press release, Agendia, DEC 9, 2020, View Source [SID1234572539]).

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The poster, The 70-gene signature (MammaPrint) accurately predicts distant breast cancer recurrence risk in older patients, outlines data from the FOCUS trial, a population-based cohort of over 2,000 people that included all consecutive breast cancer patients over 65 years old diagnosed between 1997 and 2004 in the Comprehensive Cancer Center region West, the Netherlands. The purpose of the study was to assess the stratification of breast cancers by MammaPrint in women over 70 years of age.

Treating older breast cancer patients can be challenging, as they generally have more indolent tumors and a higher likelihood of developing additional conditions that negatively affect their health than younger patients. Current treatment guidelines recommend therapy for these patients based on clinicopathological risk, but these factors are insufficient for accurate determination of prognosis. MammaPrint has been shown to accurately predict recurrence in younger women with breast cancer, and for this study, the 70-gene signature was assessed in women 70 years and older with breast cancer. MammaPrint was found to accurately stratify patients according to their 10-year distant recurrence free interval, as previously demonstrated in younger populations.

Further, the results in the poster show that even clinically high risk patients who were classified as MammaPrint UltraLow Risk – meaning they can have excellent survival without chemotherapy and only limited or no tamoxifen treatment – did not develop any recurrent disease 10 years after diagnosis, opening up treatment options and considerations for doctors and their patients, allowing them to make more informed decisions about the path ahead.

"These data show the importance of knowing everything you can about a cancer, especially when you are working with older patients who may be more fragile or susceptible to harsh treatment," said Dr. Gerrit-Jan Liefers, Surgeon, Head of the Department of Surgical Oncology of Leiden University Medical Center and the principal investigator of the FOCUS study. "We see genomically low risk patients do very well long-term, which gives us confidence to de-escalate their treatment to something more tolerable and achieve the same success, even if they are clinically high risk. We are pleased to make these data available to the breast cancer community and show the importance of research in all types of breast cancer patients."

For post-menopausal women who are identified as MammaPrint UltraLow Risk, these results have meaningful implications for their treatment paths.

"This analysis of the FOCUS cohort adds to the growing body of data demonstrating the validity of MammaPrint’s UltraLow Risk threshold," said Laura Esserman, M.D., Director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center, and winner of this year’s Brinker award for Scientific Distinction in Clinical Research. "The data confirm our findings from the STO-3 Trial, as well as data from the IKA tamoxifen trial cohort presented at ESMO (Free ESMO Whitepaper) earlier this year for node negative hormone positive breast cancer patients. These data should give confidence to patients and their physicians that the UltraLow molecular signature is associated with excellent prognosis even without extended endocrine therapy. De-escalation based on biologic features can be used to reduce the length of treatment, providing more precise treatment. Most important, the UltraLow signature can be used to substantially reduce the burden of treatment in those destined not to benefit. And certainly this can make a huge difference in the quality of life and the anxiety experience over the diagnosis."

These data are part of a large suite of 13 posters, spotlight sessions and an oral presentation on MammaPrint and BluePrint that were accepted to SABCS 2020, and underscore Agendia’s mission to help guide the diagnosis and personalized treatment of breast cancer for all patients throughout their treatment journey.

Greenwich LifeSciences Announces Poster Presentation of Five Year Data for GP2 Phase IIb Clinical Trial, Showing 0% Recurrence of Breast Cancer

On December 9, 2020 Greenwich LifeSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GLSI) (the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of GP2, an immunotherapy to prevent breast cancer recurrences in patients who have previously undergone surgery, reported the publication of a poster for the GP2 Phase IIb clinical trial final efficacy analysis at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in a virtual format (Press release, Greenwich LifeSciences, DEC 9, 2020, View Source [SID1234572537]). The CEO of Greenwich LifeSciences, Snehal Patel, also recorded an audio track providing an overview. The full poster with figures, tables, and audio can be accessed or downloaded here on the Company website, as well as on the conference website by attendees.

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The poster presents the final 5 year follow-up disease-free survival curves evaluating the reduction of breast cancer recurrences for both HER2/neu 3+ (Figure 1) and HER2/neu 1-2+ (Figure 2) patient populations, including the demographics (Table 1) for stage of cancer, hormone receptor status, node status, and prior treatment with chemotherapy, radiation, endocrine therapy, or trastuzumab (Herceptin).

Mr. Patel commented, "The poster presented at the SABCS is important because the Kaplan Meier survival curves and demographic data further validate our promising HER2 3+ Phase IIb data and support our plan to commence a Phase III trial in 2021. Recurring breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women. Approximately 50% of women with recurring breast cancer do not respond to Herceptin or Kadcyla, resulting in metastatic breast cancer and a poor prognosis. Approximately 80-85% of metastatic breast cancer patients do not survive. By addressing this unmet need, GP2 may reach a potential market exceeding $5 billion."

The conclusions of the poster are as follows:

‒ The trial met all of its clinical endpoints for HER2/neu 3+ patients, concluding that the first 6 intradermal injections of GP2+GM-CSF safely elicited a potent immune response and reduced recurrence rates to 0% in HER2/neu 3+ patients, who received a standard course of Herceptin after surgery. This reduction of recurrence rate was maintained over the gold standard of 5 years of follow-up. A pivotal Phase III trial is being initiated to treat HER2/neu 3+ patients in the neoadjuvant setting.

‒ GP2 may also be effective when administered in combination with Herceptin based therapeutics in HER2/neu 1-2+ patient populations or other HER2/neu expressing cancers.

Excerpts of the poster are below:

Poster PS10-23: San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium Poster Presentation of Median 5 Year Top-Line Data

The median 5 year top-line data described below was presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in a poster on December 9, 2020, entitled "Five year median follow-up data from a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blinded, multicenter, Phase IIb study evaluating the reduction of recurrences using HER2/neu peptide GP2+GM-CSF vs. GM-CSF alone after adjuvant trastuzumab in HER2 positive women with operable breast cancer."

The final analysis of the GP2 prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blinded, multicenter Phase IIb trial investigating GP2+GM-CSF administered in the adjuvant setting to node-positive and high-risk node-negative breast cancer patients with tumors expressing any degree of HER2 (immuno-histochemistry [IHC] 1-3+) (NCT00524277) is now complete with 5 year follow-up. The trial enrolled HLA-A02 patients randomized to receive GP2+GM-CSF versus GM-CSF alone. The trial’s primary objective was to determine if treatment with GP2, a HER2-derived peptide, reduces recurrence rates.

Each enrolled and consented subject was randomized and scheduled to receive a total of 6 GP2+GM-CSF (500 mcg GP2:125 mcg GM-CSF) or placebo (125 mcg GM-CSF alone) intradermal injections every 3-4 weeks as part of the Primary Immunization Series ("PIS") for the first 6 months and 4 GP2+GM-CSF booster or placebo intradermal injections every 6 months thereafter. Boosters were introduced during the trial, thus some patients did not receive all 4 boosters.

This 168 patient (Intent to Treat, "ITT": n=180) basket trial across 16 clinical sites explored 96 HER2 3+ patients, who received a standard course of trastuzumab after surgery and subsequently completed the full PIS or placebo, starting the PIS at median 17.1 months after surgery, and 72 HER2 1-2+ patients, who did not receive trastuzumab after surgery and subsequently completed the full PIS or placebo, starting the PIS at median 10.8 months after surgery. Subject disease characteristics are described in Table 1 of the poster.

Since GP2 is synergistic with trastuzumab, and the HER2 1-2+ patients did not receive trastuzumab, it was prespecified to compare recurrence rates ITT versus per protocol in these 2 distinct, independently reported populations, excluding those patients who did not complete the PIS.

Figure 1 of the poster depicts evidence that disease free survival ("DFS") is more likely in HER2 3+ GP2-treated subjects. After 5 years of follow-up, the Kaplan-Meier estimated 5-year DFS rate in the 46 HER2 3+ patients treated with GP2+GM-CSF, if the patient completed the PIS, was 100% versus 89.4% (95% CI:76.2, 95.5%) in the 50 placebo patients treated with GM-CSF (p = 0.0338). As shown in Table 1, the treated versus placebo HER2 3+ patients were well-matched, where approximately 53% were stage T1, 41% were stages T2-T4, 55% were node positive, 58% were hormone receptor positive and received endocrine therapy, 77% received adjuvant radiation, 77% received adjuvant chemotherapy, and 89% received trastuzumab.

GP2 was shown to be well tolerated with no SAEs and elicited a potent immune response measured by local skin tests and immunological assays, which suggest peak immunity is reached at 6 months upon completion of the PIS.

About SABCS

The 43rd annual SABCS has grown to be the industry’s premier breast cancer conference for basic, translational, and clinical cancer research professionals. It is well-known for presenting the latest breast cancer data from all over the world. More than 7,500 health care professionals from more than 90 countries attend annually. Baylor College of Medicine became a joint sponsor of SABCS in 2005. The Cancer Therapy & Research Center at UT Health Science Center San Antonio and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) began collaborations with SABCS in 2007. For more information, please visit the conference website at: View Source

About Breast Cancer and HER2/neu Positivity

One in eight U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over her lifetime, with approximately 266,000 new breast cancer patients and 3.1 million breast cancer survivors in 2018. HER2/neu (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) protein is a cell surface receptor protein that is expressed in a variety of common cancers, including in 75% of breast cancers at low (1+), intermediate (2+), and high (3+ or over-expressor) levels.