On January 3, 2019 INSYS Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: INSY), a leader in the development, manufacture and commercialization of pharmaceutical cannabinoids and spray technology, reported that Saeed Motahari, president and chief executive officer, and Andy Long, chief financial officer, will present at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference as follows (Press release, Insys Therapeutics, JAN 3, 2019, View Source [SID1234532401]):

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Date: Thursday, January 10th, 2019
Time: 10:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time
Location: Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, California

The presentation will be webcast live at the above-mentioned time, and archived for 30 days thereafter, via the Investors section of company’s website at View Source, under Presentations & Events. Accessible at the same webpage, the presentation slides will be available during and after the conference.

On January 3, 2019 Compass Therapeutics, a biotechnology company committed to the ambitious goal of comprehensively drugging the human immune system, reported that it will discuss its novel approach to antibody discovery and development and present data on its leading programs in a presentation at the 37th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco next week (Press release, Compass Therapeutics, JAN 3, 2019, View Source [SID1234532418]).

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Thomas Schuetz, MD, PhD, co-founder and chief executive officer of Compass, will describe the company’s focus on drugging the broadest possible array of epitopes for each candidate target; its StitchMabs technology that identifies novel combination biology and enables the discovery of next-generation bispecific antibody drug candidates; and the company’s unbiased approach to drug discovery which empowers the identification of the most promising therapeutic for each tumor type and application.

CTX-471, a fully human monoclonal antibody which targets a unique epitope on the costimulatory receptor CD137, is Compass’ lead candidate, and it has the potential to become a best-in-class CD137 agonist. It is expected to enter the clinic in the first quarter of 2019 where it will be tested in patients with various solid tumors. In preclinical models, CTX-471 induces remodeling of the tumor microenvironment and can completely eradicate extremely large tumors in animals. In IND-enabling monkey toxicology studies, CTX-471 has an excellent safety profile.

The proprietary StitchMabs platform was used to discover Compass’ second clinical candidate which is a first-in-class bispecific NK cell engager that lowers the activation threshold of NK cells and directs NK cells to kill selected cells, including tumor cells with low target antigen expression.

The presentation details are:

Date: Tuesday, January 8
Time: 3 PM Pacific Time
Location: Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, Elizabethan C Room

On January 3, 2019 Clinical Genomics, a leading provider of cancer diagnostic solutions including liquid biopsy tests, reported the appointment of Betsy Hanna as president and chief executive officer (Press release, Clinical Genomics, JAN 3, 2019, View Source [SID1234532434]).

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Hanna will also join the Clinical Genomics Board of Directors.

Hanna succeeds Dr. Lawrence LaPointe as CEO, who after a decade building Clinical Genomics will transition to the new role of chief innovation officer, responsible for developing solutions to improve healthcare leading clinical trials, R&D and scientific developments. He will continue to serve as an advisor to the board.

The appointments are effective immediately.

Clinical Genomics’ board chairman Mary Padbury noted, "Both Betsy and Larry bring enormous experience in their new roles. Betsy was most recently our chief commercial officer and has a 20-year career in healthcare turning products into commercial successes. Larry, as a co-founder and an accomplished scientist, will continue to lead our innovation in this rapidly evolving field."

Ms. Hanna noted, "Clinical Genomics has been successful in science and product development. Our challenge now is to accelerate commercial growth with COLVERA, a blood diagnostic for colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence, and InSure ONE, both now in the market. Our goal is to also expand future applications in screening."

Background: Betsy Hanna

Betsy Hanna is a healthcare and biotech leader. Most recently she was Clinical Genomics’ chief commercial officer with responsibility for developing and executing go-to-market strategies.

Ms. Hanna has two decades of healthcare industry experience including strategic marketing, U.S. and international sales management, and product launch. She joined Clinical Genomics from Origin, Inc., a clinical-stage biotech company where she was the president and chief operating officer.

Prior to Origin, Ms. Hanna had increasing responsibility during eight years at Johnson & Johnson. At J&J diagnostics, she was vice president, strategic marketing and led the global launch of two instrument platforms.

At J&J diagnostics, Hanna also served as vice president Europe, Mideast and Africa and, for J&J Vision Care, was vice president of strategic marketing and a member of the global management board.

Ms. Hanna has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Background: Lawrence LaPointe

Larry LaPointe, PhD, has more than two decades building healthcare companies to transform cancer testing, including most recently as co-founder of Clinical Genomics. He previously served as CTO and general manager of Enterix Inc, a cancer screening company he also co-founded.

Dr. LaPointe is a well-published research scientist and holds numerous patents in biomarker discovery, cancer detection and molecular diagnostics. He has a BS in Biology from Florida State University and a PhD in Bioinformatics from Flinders University, Australia.

Background: Clinical Genomics

Clinical Genomics is dedicated to improving patient outcomes through early detection of colorectal cancer.

COLVERA is a proprietary liquid biopsy blood test that identifies circulating tumor DNA for the detection of residual disease and early detection of colorectal cancer recurrence.
Clinical Genomics products span the spectrum of colorectal cancer testing from screening to post-treatment monitoring. InSure ONE is a one-sample fecal immunochemical test used to detect lower GI bleeding for screening in healthy adults.

On January 3, 2019 Tragara Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported the appointment of Scott Megaffin as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors effective immediately (Press release, Tragara Pharmaceuticals, JAN 3, 2019, View Source [SID1234539282]). Megaffin brings extensive leadership experience in clinical stage companies in oncology, specialty and critical care. He replaces Tom Estok, who will remain active with the company as an advisor and continue in his role on the Board of Directors.

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The addition of Megaffin comes at the time of a strategic pivot for the company that includes a change of name to Adastra Pharmaceuticals Inc. As part of this strategy, Adastra has expanded its operations beyond San Diego with the opening of an office in Princeton, N.J. This is consistent with the Adastra strategy to grow and attract new pharmaceutical talent in the New Jersey area. Adastra, which is derived from the Latin phrase "to the stars," is a name that reflects the boundless motivation and dedication of each team member to the development of best-in-class therapeutics for patients with cancer.

"Scott has the right experience to drive forward all of the Adastra strategic imperatives and continued program advancement of TG02," said Dennis Podlesak, Adastra Chairman and Partner of Domain Associates. "The Board would like to acknowledge and thank Tom for his vision and dedication in getting us to this point. We have advanced TG02 in clinical studies in collaboration with healthcare providers in the United States and Europe for adult patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Furthermore, we have prepared for the start of an exploratory study in pediatric patients with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Between now and the first quarter of next year, Adastra will have a series of clinical milestones and data read-outs that we expect will enable the company to explore multiple development and business paths forward."

Prior to joining the company, Megaffin was President of Churchill Pharmaceuticals LLC, where he successfully marshalled the company through a transaction that resulted in the sale of company assets before an FDA approval, while simultaneously preparing the company for its own possible commercialization activities. Before this, he held numerous global strategic and operational positions of increasing responsibility with Onconova Therapeutics Inc., Cephalon Inc., Adolor Corp., Yamounchi and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. He has led six global product launches and clinical development programs in a variety of therapeutic categories, including oncology, hematology, virology, critical care, anti-infectives, pain and inflammation. Megaffin earned a B.S. in Biology from Pittsburg State University.

TG02 is a highly differentiated orally delivered inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) with high penetration of the blood brain barrier, overcoming a major challenge in GBM drug development. TG02 exerts inhibitory effects on RNA Polymerase II phosphorylation, leading to depletion of the key cancer cell survival protein, Myc, thus committing cancer cells to apoptosis. TG02 has demonstrated broad anti-tumor activity across cell lines and shows a positive synergistic effect when added to standard of care treatments for GBM. Currently, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) are enrolling patients in trials of TG02 in GBM. In addition, Adastra will initiate a study of TG02 in DIPG in the second quarter of this year.

Megaffin added, "I am very happy to take on this role at Adastra during this transformational year for the company. The TG02 trials in GBM are progressing nicely, and we are entering into the start of the DIPG study in the pediatric patient population. When evaluating the opportunity to join the company, I reviewed the data in hand for TG02 and became excited by its potential for the benefit of patients. GBM and DIPG are both devastating brain cancers and represent high unmet treatment needs. TG02 presents Adastra with regulatory opportunities of rapid advancement into registrational studies in the near future. We look forward to reporting our progress in 2019 as we focus sharply on clinical programs as well as exploring possible pipeline expansion opportunities."

On January 3, 2019 Avalon GloboCare Corp. (NASDAQ: AVCO), a leading global developer of cell-based technologies, reported that the Company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Avactis Biosciences, have entered into a joint venture and exclusive license agreement with Arbele Limited to co-develop next generation, transposon-based Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-T and CAR-Natural Killer (NK) cellular therapies (Press release, Avalon, JAN 3, 2019, View Source [SID1234609548]). These unique CAR vector constructs are non-virally engineered, possessing multiple therapeutic targets as well as unique "safety-switch" mechanisms. Based on Avalon’s extensive hospital network for cellular therapy, together with the Company’s established GMP bio-production facility in China (Epicon Biotech, Nanjing), this joint venture allows Avalon to accelerate the clinical development of more efficacious and safer CAR-T/CAR-NK therapies, such as those developed by Arbele.

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"We are very excited to establish this joint venture with Arbele Limited to accelerate our clinical programs in cellular therapy," stated David Jin, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and President of Avalon GloboCare Corp. "Arbele’s strong proprietary technology platform in designing and production of non-viral, transposon-engineered, multi-targeted CAR will allow us to generate next-generation, better and safer CAR-T and CAR-NK cellular therapeutics. This joint venture will strengthen our core technological capabilities, enrich our intellectual properties, as well as further establish our leadership in the field of cellular immunotherapy," added Dr. Jin.