On September 21, 2017 Cellectar Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLRB), an oncology-focused, clinical stage biotechnology company (the "company"), and Onconova Therapeutics (Nasdaq:ONTX) reported that they have entered into a strategic collaboration to develop new phospholipid drug conjugates (PDCs) combining Cellectar’s patented phospholipid ether delivery platform with select proprietary compounds or payloads from Onconova’s early stage product pipeline (Press release, Cellectar Biosciences, SEP 22, 2017, View Source [SID1234520607]). Newtown, Pa.-based Onconova is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel small molecule drug candidates to treat cancer.

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"Access to novel anti-tumor payloads is key to leveraging our next generation PDC delivery platform technology for the discovery of novel, proprietary targeted anti-cancer therapeutics," said Jim Caruso, president and CEO of Cellectar Biosciences. "Onconova is an established player in developing small molecule anti-cancer compounds. Their unique early stage assets, development experience and ability to successfully advance compounds into Phase 3 clinical trials makes them an excellent partner for Cellectar."

Under the terms of the collaboration, Onconova will provide Cellectar with several compounds, including some from the family of molecules that contains Briciclib, which is an EIF4E targeting small molecule with early Phase 1 data. Cellectar will leverage its expertise in early development and chemical conjugation to link the molecules to its phospholipid ether (PDC platform) to create new, more precisely targeted antitumor agents. Both companies will have the option to advance the development of any of the newly conjugated PDC molecules. Financial terms of the collaboration have not been disclosed.

"We are focused on optimizing the delivery of our therapeutic compounds in the battle against Myelodysplastic Syndrome and a variety of cancers. As such, we are excited to collaborate with Cellectar and leverage their PDC platform, which we believe can improve the targeting of our molecules directly to the cancer, in addition to extending the patent coverage of these drug candidates," said Ramesh Kumar, Ph.D., president and CEO of Onconova Therapeutics.

About Phospholipid Drug Conjugates (PDCs)
Cellectar’s product candidates are built upon its patented cancer cell-targeting delivery and retention platform of optimized phospholipid ether-drug conjugates (PDCs). The company deliberately designed its phospholipid ether (PLE) carrier platform to be coupled with a variety of payloads to facilitate both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. The basis for selective tumor targeting of our PDC compounds lies in the differences between the plasma membranes of cancer cells compared to those of normal cells. Cancer cell membranes are highly enriched in lipid rafts, which are glycolipoprotein microdomains of the plasma membrane of cells that contain high concentrations of cholesterol and sphingolipids, and serve to organize cell surface and intracellular signaling molecules. PDCs have been tested in more than 80 different xenograft models of cancer.

On September 21, 2017 Juno Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:JUNO), a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, reported that the pricing of its follow-on public offering of 6,100,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $41.00 per share (Press release, Juno, SEP 21, 2017, View Source;p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=2302262 [SID1234520595]). In addition, Juno has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 915,000 shares of common stock. Juno intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes and working capital.

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The offering is expected to close on September 26, 2017, subject to customary closing conditions. Concurrent with the completion of the follow-on public offering, Juno will complete a private placement of 659,415 shares of its common stock, at a price of $41.00 per share, to a subsidiary of Celgene Corporation. Aggregate gross proceeds from the follow-on public offering and concurrent private placement, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, in the case of the follow-on public offering, and expenses payable by Juno will be $277.1 million (or approximately $318.7 million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full).
Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering. Barclays and Leerink Partners are acting as co-lead managers and Wells Fargo Securities, Raymond James and Wedbush PacGrow are acting as co-managers.

A registration statement on Form S-3 relating to the common stock offered in the public offering described above was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 20, 2017 and was automatically effective upon filing. The offering is being made only by means of a written prospectus that forms a part of the registration statement. Copies of the final prospectus related to the offering may be obtained from Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014 and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, Attn: Prospectus Department, or by telephone at (866) 803-9204.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities being offered, nor shall there be any sale of the securities being offered in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

On September 21, 2019 Alligator Bioscience (Nasdaq Stockholm: ATORX), a biotechnology company developing antibody-based pharmaceuticals for tumor-directed immunotherapy, reported that results from a clinical phase I study of the drug candidate ADC-1013 (JNJ-64457107) will be presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper) 32nd Annual Meeting, held from 8-12 November 2017 at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, US (Press release, Alligator Bioscience, SEP 21, 2017, View Source [SID1234538685]).

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Alligator Bioscience will give both an oral and poster presentation at the SITC (Free SITC Whitepaper) conference with the title: "First-in-human study with intratumoral administration of a CD40 agonistic antibody: preliminary results with ADC-1013/JNJ-64457107 in advanced solid malignancies". The oral presentation will be held at Session Clinical Trials: New Agents, starting at 1:45 p.m. ET (7:45 p.m. CET) on November 10, 2017.

For further information about the program, please visit the conference web site:
View Source

For further information:
Cecilia Hofvander, Director Investor Relations & Communications
Phone +46 46 286 44 95
E-mail: [email protected].

This release contains information that Alligator Bioscience AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 8:30 a.m. CEST on 21 September 2017.

Notes to editors

About ADC-1013

ADC-1013 is a drug candidate intended for immunotherapy of different types of cancer. Pre-clinical data have shown that the ADC-1013 antibody effectively activates T-cells, mediated through binding to the co-stimulatory receptor CD40 on dendritic cells. The increased T cell activation enables the immune system to attack the cancer. In addition, since some cancer cells express CD40 on the surface, ADC-1013 may act also through a secondary mechanism of action killing cancer cells directly.

In August 2015, Alligator licensed global development rights for ADC-1013 to Janssen Biotech Inc. In October 2016, Janssen Biotech, Inc. started a second phase I clinical study (ClinicalTrials: NCT02829099). That study is an intravenous dose escalation study with ADC-1013 (JNJ-64457107).

About the ADC-1013 clinical Phase I study

The study to be presented is a multicenter, open-label phase I study in patients with advanced solid tumors evaluating safety and tolerability, pharmacokinetics, immunogenicity, biomarker response and clinical response. The study is a dose-escalation study involving intratumoral and intravenous administration of ADC-1013 at five hospitals in Sweden, Denmark and the UK. The study was performed by Alligator and includes 24 patients and ten different tumor types. For further information, please visit View Source; NCT02379741.

On September 21, 2017 Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) reported that the European Commission (EC) has granted marketing authorization for BAVENCIO (avelumab) as a monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (mMCC), a rare and aggressive skin cancer (Press release, Pfizer, SEP 21, 2017, View Source [SID1234520590]).[1] BAVENCIO will have marketing authorization in the 28 countries of the European Union (EU) in addition to Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. BAVENCIO is expected to become commercially available to patients in Europe by prescription within the coming months, with initial launches in Germany and UK expected as early as October 2017.

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"The EC’s decision is significant for BAVENCIO and, more importantly, for European patients living with this very challenging skin cancer," said Luciano Rossetti, M.D., Executive Vice President, Global Head of Research & Development at the biopharma business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as EMD Serono in the US and Canada. "Our alliance with Pfizer continues to demonstrate the power of working together, and we are grateful to everyone who has helped to bring the first and only approved immunotherapy for mMCC to European patients."

"This European approval further establishes our continued momentum, building on the accelerated approvals BAVENCIO received in the US earlier this year," said Liz Barrett, Global President, Pfizer Oncology. "Importantly, we are now one step closer to our goal of making BAVENCIO available to patients around the world."

Approximately 2,500 Europeans are affected by MCC each year, with metastatic disease diagnosed in 5-12% of patients with MCC. Fewer than 20% of patients with metastatic MCC survive beyond 5 years. [2]-[6]

"Merkel cell carcinoma is a particularly aggressive form of skin cancer with very poor outcomes, especially for those with metastatic disease," said Dirk Schadendorf, MD, Director of Dermatology, University Hospital Essen, Germany. "This approval is a meaningful development for patients and their families suffering from this devastating disease."

The EC approval is based on data from JAVELIN Merkel 200, an international, multicenter, single-arm, open-label, Phase II study; with two parts:[1]

Part A included 88 patients with mMCC whose disease had progressed after at least one chemotherapy treatment. The objective response rate was 33%, with 11% of patients experiencing a complete response and 22% of patients experiencing a partial response. At the time of analysis, tumor responses were durable, with 93% of responses lasting at least 6 months (n=25) and 71% of responses lasting at least 12 months (n=13). Duration of response (DOR) ranged from 2.8 to more than 24.9 months.

Part B, at the time of the data cut-off, included 39 patients with histologically confirmed mMCC who were treatment-naïve to systemic therapy in the metastatic setting. The objective response rate was 62%, with 14% of patients experiencing a complete response (CR) and 48% of patients experiencing a partial response (PR). Sixty-seven percent of patients experienced a progression-free survival (PFS) rate of 3 months.

The safety of avelumab has been evaluated in 1,738 patients with solid tumours including metastatic MCC (N=88) receiving 10 mg/kg every 2 weeks of avelumab in clinical studies.[1]

1,738 patients with solid tumors received 10 mg/kg every 2 weeks. In this patient population, the most common adverse reactions were fatigue (32.4%), nausea (25.1%), diarrhea (18.9%), decreased appetite (18.4%), constipation (18.4%), infusion-related reactions (17.1%), weight decreased (16.6%), and vomiting (16.2%). The most common Grade ≥ 3 adverse reactions were anaemia (6.0%), dyspnoea (3.9%), and abdominal pain (3.0%). Serious adverse reactions were immune-related adverse reactions and infusion-related reaction.

The EC’s decision follows the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) accelerated approval* for BAVENCIO earlier this year for the treatment of mMCC and patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy. BAVENCIO was also granted marketing authorization by Swissmedic on September 05, 2017, in Switzerland for the treatment of patients with mMCC, whose disease has progressed after at least one chemotherapy treatment.

The clinical development program for BAVENCIO, known as JAVELIN, involves at least 30 clinical programs and more than 6,300 patients evaluated across more than 15 different tumor types. In addition to mMCC, these cancers include breast, gastric/gastro-esophageal junction, head and neck, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, emelanoma, mesothelioma, non-small cell lung, ovarian, renal cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma.

About Metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma
Metastatic MCC is a rare and aggressive disease in which cancer cells form in the top layer of the skin, close to nerve endings.[7]-[8] MCC, which is also known as neuroendocrine carcinoma of the skin or trabecular cancer, often starts in those areas of skin that are most often exposed to the sun, including the head and neck, and arms.[7],[9] Risk factors for MCC include sun exposure and infection with Merkel cell polyomavirus. Caucasian males older than 50 are at increased risk.[7],[9] MCC is often misdiagnosed as other skin cancers and grows at an exponential rate on chronically sun-damaged skin.[9-11] Current treatment options for MCC in Europe include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.[8] Treatment for metastatic or Stage IV MCC is generally palliative.[8]

On September 20, 2017 Eagle Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:EGRX) ("Eagle" or "the Company") and SymBio Pharmaceuticals Limited ("SymBio") (Tokyo Stock Exchange/JASDAQ 4582) reported that the Company has licensed to SymBio rights under Eagle’s intellectual property to develop, market and sell Eagle’s bendamustine hydrochloride ("bendamustine HCl") ready-to-dilute ("RTD") and rapid infusion ("RI") injection products in Japan (Press release, Eagle Pharmaceuticals, SEP 20, 2017, View Source [SID1234540126]).

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SymBio will be responsible for securing regulatory approval of the RTD and RI injection products using the licensed technology in Japan with a target for approval of a product in 2020. SymBio currently markets TREAKISYM in Japan, a lyophilized powder formulation of bendamustine HCl indicated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia ("CLL"); relapsed or refractory low-grade Hodgkin’s lymphoma ("NHL"); mantle cell lymphoma ("MCL"); and as a first line treatment of low-grade NHL and MCL. According to SymBio, 12-month sales ended June 30, 2017 in Japan for TREAKISYM were $52 million, due to the approval of first line treatment for NHL and MCL in December 2016. SymBio has estimated that sales of TREAKISYM are estimated to grow to $90 million in 2018.

A 50 ml RI or rapid infusion presentation of bendamustine hydrochloride injection is currently marketed in the U.S. by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. ("Teva") as BENDEKA (bendamustine HCl) Injection. BENDEKA currently has a 97% market share of the bendamustine market, and Teva has forecasted the North American market for bendamustine to be approximately $600 – $660 million in sales in 2017. BENDEKA’s low volume infusion and short infusion time represents an important benefit to both patients and healthcare providers.

Pursuant to the terms of the license with SymBio, Eagle will receive a $12.5 million upfront milestone payment, and may be entitled to additional milestone payments upon approval and the achievement of cumulative sales thresholds. The Company will also receive royalties on future net sales of the licensed bendamustine products.

"This is an important example of the value of the Eagle portfolio to patients worldwide and a first step in expanding outside the U.S. for our differentiated products. We look forward to SymBio’s future approval and successful commercialization of bendamustine HCI in Japan," stated Scott Tarriff, Chief Executive Officer of Eagle Pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Fuminori Yoshida, President and Chief Executive Officer of SymBio, stated, "In-licensing Eagle’s ready-to-dilute and rapid infusion injection products will enable SymBio to extend the product life and continue to maximize the value of TREAKISYM over the product life while bringing significant benefits to patients and healthcare providers in Japan."