On October 20, 2020 Chaperone, a new drug development bio venture, reported that it has completed attracting 26 billion won in Series C investment (Press release, Shaperon, OCT 20, 2020, View Source;idx=33&pNo=4&code=press_en [SID1234629322]).

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This investment includes follow-up investments from four existing investors, including Smilegate Investment, Yuanta Investment, and Seoul Investment Partners, as well as a total of nine investments, including POSCO Technology Investment, Moorim Capital, BNK Venture Investment, Albatros Investment, JX Partners, and Nova Healthcare. agency participated.

The amount by investor was 9 billion won by POSCO Technology Investment-Moorim Capital Investment Association and 7 billion won by Smilegate Investment, and other institutions were responsible for the rest.

With this investment as an opportunity, Chaperon is currently in phase 2 clinical trial for atopic dermatitis treatment in Korea and phase 2 clinical trial for COVID-19 treatment in Europe, as well as septicemia treatment that has completed phase 1 clinical trial and phase 1 clinical trial. It plans to accelerate the development and commercialization of Alzheimer’s dementia and ulcerative colitis treatments. In addition, the development of nanobody therapeutics, which are alpaca-derived fragment antibodies that overcome the limitations of existing antibodies, will also be accelerated.

To this end, Lee Myung-se, who recently served as CEO of Eli Lilly Philippines and Korea representative director of Abbott and Mundipharma, has been recruited as co-CEO, and co-CEO Seung-Yong Sung, the founder, is promoting global commercialization in the technology and business fields.

The NLRP3 inflammatory complex inhibitor being developed by Chaperon is a newly emerging target in new drug development to the extent that less than 10 bio companies around the world have substances that have entered the clinical stage, and multinational pharmaceutical companies are highly interested in it.

While competitive substances inhibit only IL-1β, Chaperone’s new drug substance simultaneously controls the initiation and amplification steps of the inflammatory complex, suppressing a wide range of inflammatory factors such as IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α, resulting in various inflammatory factors. It is more effective for acute chronic inflammatory diseases and shows the fastest clinical stage compared to competitors.

Co-CEO Lee Myung-se said, "With the goal of an IPO in 2021, we will materialize commercialization through global open innovation based on the world’s first GPCR receptor-modulating inflammatory complex inhibitor and nanobody platform technology established by only a handful of companies in the world."

On October 20, 2020 Ankarys Therapeutics Inc. (Ankarys), Applied StemCell, Inc. (ASC), and HebeCell Corp. (HebeCell) reported that they have entered into a strategic collaboration to co-develop allogeneic induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) NK cell therapeutics targeting hematological malignancies (Press release, HebeCell, OCT 20, 2020, View Source [SID1234571033]).

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The collaboration will leverage Ankarys’ cGMP iPSC lines, proprietary CAR constructs, and FailSafe cell engineering technology. Ankarys will lead the Canadian CTA/US IND-enabling studies and launch a Phase I clinical trial in Canada and US.

ASC will use its proprietary TARGATT gene editing technology to insert the proprietary CAR constructs into Ankarys’ iPSC lines.

HebeCell will differentiate the CAR expressing iPSCs into NK cells using its proprietary 3D bioreactor platform and will be the manufacturing partner for the collaboration throughout the preclinical, clinical, and commercialization phases of the product.

"Our unique TARGATT gene insertion technology has multiple applications in immunotherapy and regenerative Medicine" said Dr. Ruby Yanru Tsai, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of ASC. "I am very excited to see TARGATT technology being used in generating iPSC-derived CAR-NK therapeutic products."

Dr. Allen Feng, the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of HebeCell added "We are thrilled to start this collaboration with Ankarys and ASC as all three companies have a shared goal of achieving the unmet needs in the immuno-oncology field,"

"This collaborative partnership builds on the unique complementary strengths and resources to rapidly deploy off-the-shelf CAR-NK products for all patients." Dr. Armand Keating, Founder of Ankarys said. "We are excited to be working with ASC and HebeCell, and believe our platform technologies will alter the NK cell therapy field by delivering cost effective allogeneic therapies worldwide."

On October 20, 2020 PDS Biotechnology Corporation (Nasdaq: PDSB), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing novel cancer therapies and infectious disease vaccines based on the Company’s proprietary Versamune T-cell activating technology, reported that the Phase 2 clinical trial of PDS0101 in combination with standard of care chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer is now open (Press release, PDS Biotechnology, OCT 20, 2020, View Source [SID1234570260]).

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This Phase 2 trial is being led by Ann H. Klopp, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology and Olsi Gjyshi, M.D., Ph.D., Resident in Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The trial will investigate the anti-tumor efficacy and safety of the PDS0101-CRT combination, and their correlation with critical biomarkers of immune response, in approximately 35 patients.

"We are excited to have initiated this Phase 2 human study of PDS0101 administered with the current standard of care. We believe that the demonstrated potential of PDS0101 to activate the immune system to induce tumor-targeting T-cells provides strong potential to present improved treatments to patients with cervical cancer," commented Dr. Lauren Wood, Chief Medical Officer of PDS Biotech.

Dr. Lauren Wood, PDS Biotech’s Chief Medical Officer, will serve as PDS Biotech’s intermediary. The study is being performed pursuant to an Investigator Initiated Study Agreement between PDS Biotech and MD Anderson.

On October 20, 2020 Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALXN) reported that the Company will report its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020 before the US financial markets open on October 29, 2020 (Press release, Alexion, OCT 20, 2020, View Source [SID1234569967]). Following the release of the financial results, Alexion management will conduct a conference call and audio webcast from 8:00-9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET).

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To participate in this conference call, dial (866) 762-3111 (USA) or (210) 874-7712 (International), conference ID 6582445 shortly before 8:00 a.m. ET. The audio webcast can be accessed on the Investor page of View Source and an archived version will be available for a limited time following the presentation.

On October 20, 2020 Vaccitech Ltd, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing T cell vaccines and immunotherapies designed to treat and prevent infectious disease and cancer, reported the appointment of three new senior leaders across its clinical, financial and manufacturing operations during a period of significant growth for the company (Press release, Vaccitech, OCT 20, 2020, View Source [SID1234568968]).

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Margaret (Meg) Marshall, M.D. becomes Vaccitech’s full-time Chief Medical Officer, having worked as a consultant for the company since June 2020. Dr. Marshall has over 25 years of experience in the preclinical and clinical development of cell and antibody-based immunotherapy for infectious disease and cancer. Prior to joining Vaccitech, she held directorship positions in the clinical research departments of Kyowa Kirin, Kite Pharma and Pfizer. Dr. Marshall will lead the clinical development planning and execution of the company’s programs.

"It has been a great experience working for Bill and the team, and I’m thrilled to officially be on board to lead the clinical development of our exciting immunotherapy and vaccine programs. Our T cell-inducing platform has great potential to be transformative, and to deliver patient benefits in chronic infectious diseases such as HBV and HPV as well as in oncology indications such as prostate cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)," said CMO Dr. Meg Marshall.

Georgy Egorov joins Vaccitech as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Egorov brings more than 20 years of senior finance, strategy, investment banking and capital markets experience as well as extensive knowledge of investor relations and corporate development to the company. Mr. Egorov joins Vaccitech from Exscientia, a global leader in AI drug discovery, where he was CFO and Board member. Mr. Egorov also worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and UBS, where he was involved in numerous M&A transactions and equity and debt financings.

CFO Georgy Egorov comments, "Despite the pandemic, 2020 has been an incredible year for investing in life sciences, with unprecedented amounts of capital raised. I look forward to ensuring Vaccitech stays on a firm financial footing as we expand our operations and seek to develop our T cell immunotherapy and vaccine product candidates from the clinic through to market, if approved."

In addition, Simon Alvis, Ph.D., joins Vaccitech as Vice President Manufacturing. Since 1999, Dr. Alvis has cultivated a broad expertise across process, analytical and formulation development of viral and recombinant protein biological drug products. He has great experience and strategic vision for the regulatory and manufacturing requirements necessary to move biologic product candidates forward towards commercialization. He joins Vaccitech after leading viral manufacturing programs at PsiOxus Therapeutics.

VP of Manufacturing, Simon Alvis adds, "We are planning for success and scale up at Vaccitech, and I am delighted to bring my manufacturing expertise to the company as we expand our clinical pipeline. I believe we can really make a difference to patients’ lives by treating and preventing infectious diseases and cancer."

Bill Enright, CEO of Vaccitech, said, "I am delighted to welcome aboard Meg, Georgy and Simon; their wealth of experiences driving product candidate development, financial management and manufacturing will be key to helping Vaccitech move its important immunotherapies forward."