On April 11, 2018 Percans Oncology reported that it has developed i-CR, a personalized drug susceptibility testing platform for the precise treatment of colon cancer, to provide clinicians and patients with the most valuable medical plan for reference (Press release, Cothera Bioscience, APR 11, 2018, View Source [SID1234618854]).

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Features of i-CR in vitro drug susceptibility testing platform

i-CR drug susceptibility testing technology focuses on the functionality of tumor cells. It investigates the response of tumor cells under the action of drugs instead of exploring the relationship between drug susceptibility and changes in genes and proteins. The i-CR results are more practical and correspondence to clinical outcomes. This technology takes small samples of patients’ tumors, and performs rapid and high-throughput, drug susceptibility tests for drugs that have been marketed or entered clinical trials, thus providing a strong basis for clinicians to make optmized medical plans for each individual patient.

Target Patients

l Patients newly diagnosed as stage III or IV colorectal cancer;

l Patients who have failed the standard first-line treatment plan and hope to choose the best plan;

l Patients who have local or distant metastases and cannot benefit from genetic testing;

l Patients who are resistant to targeted drugs and need to find effective multiple targeted drugs and targeted combinations.

On April 11, 2018 Cellectis (Euronext Growth: ALCLS – Nasdaq: CLLS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing immunotherapies based on gene-edited allogeneic CAR T-cells (UCART), reported that three posters regarding the Company’s allogeneic, off-the-shelf, CAR-T product candidates will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting to be held from April 14 to 18, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois (Press release, Cellectis, APR 11, 2018, View Source [SID1234525258]).

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April 16, 2018, 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM Central Time
Section 45

Repurposing endogenous immune pathways to improve chimeric antigen receptor T-cells potency
M. Sachdeva1, B. Busser1, S. Temburni1, A. Juillerat1, L. Poirot2, P. Duchateau2, J. Valton1;
1Cellectis, New York, NY, 2Cellectis, Paris, France

April 16, 2018, 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM Central Time
Section 24

Preclinical efficacy of allogeneic anti-CD123 CAR T-cells for the therapy of blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN)
T. Cai1, K. L. Black2, A. Naqvi2, R. Galetto3, A. Gouble3, J. Smith4, A. Cavazos1, L. Han1, Q. Zhang1, V. Kuruvilla1, S. N. Sergej Konoplev1, S. S. Neelapu1, A. A. Lane5, M. L. Guzman6, H. Kantarjian1, A. Thomas-Tikhonenko2, N. Pemmaraju1, M. Konopleva1;
1UT MD Anderson Cancer Ctr., Houston, TX, 2The Children’s Hosp. of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, 3Cellectis SA, Paris, France, 4Cellectis Inc, New York, NY, 5Dana-Farber Cancer Inst., Boston, MA, 6Weill Cornell Med. Coll., New York, NY

April 18, 2018, 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM Central Time
Section 31

Prediction of immunotherapy outcome by multimodal assessment of minimal residual disease and persistence of allogeneic anti-CD123 CAR T-cells (UCART123) in pre-clinical models of acute myeloid leukemia
M. Sugita1, N. Mencia-Trinchant1, N. Ewing-Crystal1, G. Suppa1, R. Galetto2, A. Gouble2, J. Smith3, G. J. Roboz1, D. C. Hassane1, M. L. Guzman1;
1Weill Cornell Med., New York, NY, 2Cellectis SA, Paris, France, 3Cellectis Inc, New York, NY

Abstracts are available on the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) website. The three posters to be presented at the 2018 AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting will be available on the Cellectis website after April 18, 2018.

On April 11, 2018 Evotec AG reported a strategic collaboration with Petra Pharma Corporation ("Petra") (Press release, Evotec, APR 11, 2018, View Source;announcements/press-releases/p/evotec-forms-collaboration-with-petra-pharma-on-indigo-platform-5667 [SID1234525259]). Through the collaboration, Petra will access Evotec’s INDiGO platform to accelerate the development of its lead programme Petra-01, which is being developed for a range of oncological indications, through to the submission of an Investigational New Drug Application ("IND") with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the close of 2018. Evotec will leverage its highly skilled experts across all disciplines, primarily oncology, to implement a tailored drug development strategy for Petra-01 and will receive undisclosed research funding and success-based milestones.

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"Evotec has a strong track record of successful integrated development and INDiGO packages on behalf of their clients," said Brian O’Callaghan, President and Chief Executive Officer at Petra Pharma. "Our team at Petra is excited to progress our lead programme and look forward to achieving our goal to file an IND by the end of 2018. We are confident Evotec’s INDiGO programme and the team they assembled are the best partner to ensure the rapid and high-quality progression of Petra-01."

Dr Mario Polywka, Chief Operating Officer of Evotec, added: "Our INDiGO platform has proven to reduce the development time and cost of taking a pre-clinical candidate through to producing a quality data package for CTA and IND filings. Petra is a leader in the emerging NY life science ecosystem and we look forward to working with them long-term. We are excited for the opportunity to work with Petra on advancing its promising oncology candidate, Petra-01."

ABOUT PETRA-01
The lead program targets PIP4K2, an enzyme that phosphorylates PI(5)P (phosphoinositide 5 phosphate) to yield PI(4,5)P2 (phosphoinositide 4, 5, phosphate). Both substrate and product are important signaling molecules involved in regulation of cellular metabolism and growth. Published reports and Petra’s internal data support a role for inhibitors of PIP4K2 in selective killing of cancerous cells. This program has benefited from a highly productive collaboration with Sprint Biosciences, a leading fragment based drug discovery company.

On April 11, 2018 Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOR) reported that it will host a conference call and webcast to report its first quarter 2018 financial results on Wednesday, May 2 at 8:30 a.m. ET (Press release, Acorda Therapeutics, APR 11, 2018, View Source [SID1234525262]).

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To participate in the conference call, please dial (833) 236-2756 (domestic) or (647) 689-4181 (international) and reference the access code 2477088. The presentation will be available on the Investors section of www.acorda.com.

A replay of the call will be available from 11:30 a.m. ET on May 2, 2018 until 11:59 p.m. ET on June 2, 2018. To access the replay, please dial (800) 585-8367 (domestic) or (416) 621-4642 (international); reference code 2477088. The archived webcast will be available in the Investor Relations section of the Acorda website at www.acorda.com.

On April 11, 2018 Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLCM), a leader in developing novel, controllable cellular immunotherapies for cancers and orphan inherited blood disorders, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has lifted the clinical hold on studies of BPX-501 in the U.S (Press release, Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, APR 11, 2018, View Source [SID1234525332]). The decision follows consultation with the FDA and agreement on amendments to the study protocols including guidance on monitoring and management of neurologic adverse events. Bellicum will be working with U.S. clinical sites to resume patient recruitment based on the amended protocols. The FDA clinical hold did not affect the BP-004 registrational trial in Europe, which is fully enrolled.

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About BPX-501
BPX-501 is an adjunct T-cell therapy administered after allogeneic HSCT, comprising genetically modified donor T cells incorporating Bellicum’s CaspaCIDe safety switch. It is designed to provide a safety net to eliminate alloreactive BPX-501 T cells (via administration of activator agent rimiducid) should uncontrollable GvHD or other T-cell mediated transplant complications occur. This may enable physicians to more safely perform stem cell transplants by administering BPX-501 engineered T cells to speed immune reconstitution, provide control over viral infections, and enhance graft-versus-leukemic activity while minimizing GvHD side effects.