On November 30, 2021 BeiGene, Ltd. (NASDAQ: BGNE; HKEX: 06160), a global, science-driven biotechnology company focused on developing innovative and affordable medicines to improve treatment outcomes and access for patients worldwide, reported the pricing of its previously announced initial public offering (STAR Offering) on the Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR Market) of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) (Press release, BeiGene, NOV 30, 2021, View Source [SID1234596282]). The total number of shares being offered in the STAR Offering is 115,055,260 ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, which represents 8.62% of BeiGene’s total outstanding ordinary shares as of October 31, 2021, after giving effect to the shares being offered. The shares offered in the STAR Offering will be issued to and subscribed for by permitted investors in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and listed and traded on the STAR Market in Renminbi (RMB Shares).

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The public offering price of the RMB Shares is RMB192.60 per ordinary share, which equates to HK$234.89 per ordinary share and US$391.68 per American Depositary Share (ADS), based on an assumed exchange rate of RMB0.81996 to HK$1.00 and RMB6.3924 to US$1.00. Each ADS represents 13 ordinary shares.

The gross proceeds to BeiGene from the STAR Offering, before deducting underwriting commissions and other estimated offering expenses, are expected to be approximately RMB22.2 billion, or approximately US$3.5 billion, based on an assumed exchange rate of RMB6.3924 to US$1.00.

Subject to customary closing conditions, BeiGene expects to deliver the RMB Shares against payment on or about December 9, 2021 and the RMB Shares are expected to begin trading on the STAR Market on or about December 15, 2021 under the stock code "688235."

China International Capital Corporation Limited and Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities Co. Ltd. are acting as joint sponsors and joint bookrunners for the STAR Offering. J.P. Morgan Securities (China) Company Limited, CITIC Securities Co., Ltd. and Guotai Junan Securities Co., Ltd. are acting as joint bookrunners for the STAR Offering.

BeiGene has granted China International Capital Corporation Limited a 30-day overallotment option for up to 17,258,000 additional RMB Shares. If the over-allotment option is fully exercised, the total number of shares being offered in the STAR Offering will be 132,313,260 Shares, which represents 9.79% of BeiGene’s total outstanding ordinary shares as of October 31, 2021, after giving effect to the shares being offered.

BeiGene expects to use the net proceeds from the STAR Offering to fund its research and clinical development, construction of its research and development centers and a manufacturing plant in China, sales and marketing force expansion in China, and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

In accordance with applicable PRC laws and regulations, the STAR Offering is being conducted solely within the PRC and only to permitted investors who are eligible to participate in the STAR Offering in accordance with applicable PRC securities laws and regulations, and rules promulgated by the SSE and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). The STAR Offering is being conducted pursuant to a prospectus and other offering materials prepared by BeiGene in Chinese language and as approved by and registered with the SSE and the CSRC, which are only permitted to be used within the PRC. No part of the STAR Offering is intended to involve a public offering or sale of the RMB Shares into or in the United States or any other jurisdiction outside of the PRC. In addition, although the RMB Shares are of the same class and have the same rights as the Company’s existing ordinary shares listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx), the RMB Shares will not be fungible with the ordinary shares listed on the HKEx or the Company’s ADSs representing its ordinary shares listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market (NASDAQ), and in no event will any RMB Shares be able to be converted into ordinary shares listed on the HKEx or ADSs listed on NASDAQ, or vice versa.

An automatically effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on May 11, 2020. A preliminary prospectus supplement relating to and describing the key terms of the STAR Offering was filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. The final terms of the STAR Offering will be disclosed in a final prospectus supplement to be filed with the SEC. The purpose of the prospectus supplement is to register all RMB Shares offered in the STAR Offering under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (Securities Act) to ensure that the offer and sale of the RMB Shares, if any, to permitted investors who are U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the Securities Act) in transactions outside the United States will not violate the registration requirements under Section 5 of the Securities Act.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any offer or sale of these securities in any state or 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 jurisdiction. This press release is being issued pursuant to, and in accordance with, Rule 134 under the Securities Act.

On November 30, 2021 GT Biopharma, Inc. (the "Company") (NASDAQ: GTBP), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company focused on developing innovative therapeutics based on the Company’s proprietary natural killer (NK) cell engager, TriKE protein biologic technology platform, reported that an abstract was accepted for presentation at the upcoming European Society for Medical Oncology ("ESMO") Immuno-Oncology ("IO") Congress 2021 to be held December 8-11, 2021 in Geneva Switzerland (Press release, GT Life Sciences, NOV 30, 2021, View Source [SID1234596300]).

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ESMO IO 2021 presentation details:

e-Poster Display Title (#126P): Novel B7-H3 targeting dual nanobody NK cell engagers display robust activity against a broad spectrum of solid and hematologic malignancies

ESMO-IO will publish full abstracts on their website on Thursday, December 2 at 12:00 pm CET. GT Biopharma will post its poster on the company’s website in the "Presentations" section during the conference.

For abstract and event details please visit: View Source

About Camelid Antibodies

Camelid antibodies are single domain antibodies (sdAbs) from the Camelidae family of mammals that include llamas, camels, and alpacas. These animals produce 2 main types of antibodies. One type of antibody camelids produce is the conventional antibody that is made up of 2 heavy chains and 2 light chains. They also produce another type of antibody that is made up of only 2 heavy chains and no light chain. This is known as heavy chain IgG (hcIgG). While these antibodies do not contain the CH1 region, they retain an antigen binding domain called the VHH region. VHH antibodies, also known as single domain antibodies, contain only the VHH region from the camelid antibody. Camelid antibodies have key characteristics, which include high affinity and specificity (equivalent to conventional antibodies), high thermostability, good solubility and strictly monomeric behavior, small size, relatively low production cost, ease of genetic engineering, format flexibility or modularity, low immunogenicity, and a higher penetration rate into tissues.

About GTB-3650

GTB-3650 is the Company’s lead second-generation Tri-Specific Killer Engager TriKE program currently in preclinical development for the treatment of relapsed/refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

On November 30, 2021 Athenex, Inc., (NASDAQ: ATNX), a global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel therapies for the treatment of cancer and related conditions, reported that it will host a virtual key opinion leader (KOL) event on its CAR-NKT technology on Monday, December 13th, at 9:00 am ET (Press release, Athenex, NOV 30, 2021, View Source [SID1234596245]).

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The webinar will feature presentations by KOLs Leonid Metelitsa, M.D., and Carlos Ramos, M.D., both from Baylor College of Medicine, and Sattva Neelapu, M.D., from MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Metelitsa will provide an overview of Athenex’s CAR-NKT cell-based approaches. Dr. Ramos will discuss the interim data from the ongoing ANCHOR study evaluating KUR-502 in relapsed or refractory lymphoma and leukemia. These data will also be featured in a poster presentation at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) (Free ASH Whitepaper) Annual Meeting and Exposition, being held from December 11th to December 14th. Dr. Neelapu will discuss the current treatment landscape and unmet medical needs in lymphoma/myeloma.

Presentations from Kurt Gunter, M.D., Chief Medical Officer for Cell Therapy at Athenex, and Daniel Lang, M.D. President, Athenex Cell Therapy, will follow. Dr. Gunter will discuss clinical milestones and company objectives.

A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentations. To register for the webinar, please click here.

Presenting Key Opinion Leaders:

Dr. Carlos Ramos is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at the Baylor College of Medicine, and an Attending Physician in the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Service at the Houston Methodist Hospital. As a faculty member, he has focused his research efforts on T-cell therapy for malignancies and viral infections. He has broad experience in cellular therapy for hematologic cancers, being the principal investigator in trials using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T cells targeting CD19, CD30 and kappa light chain as therapy for non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma. He is also implementing cellular therapy approaches for patients with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)-associated malignancies, using HPV-specific T cells. Dr. Ramos earned his Medical Degree with Honors from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and was a Resident in Internal Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. He completed Fellowships in Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York, and in Blood and Marrow Transplantation at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston.

Dr. Leonid Metelitsa is involved in research focused on understanding the role of Vα24-invariant natural killer T cells (iNKTs) in tumor immunity. Using clinical samples from neuroblastoma patients, his lab demonstrated for the first time that iNKTs localize to primary tumors and their presence at the tumor site is associated with good outcome. In the pursuit of the underlying mechanistic basis for the observed association between iNKTs and clinical outcome, Dr. Metelitsa’s group has published a series of high-impact papers that revealed the mechanisms of iNKT cell tumor localization and function in the tumor microenvironment. In one of these studies, they discovered the mechanism by which iNKTs attack tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). That study has had a major impact in the fields of NKT cell and neuroblastoma research. First, it explained how iNKTs can mediate antitumor activity against CD1d-negative tumors, the majority of solid tumors in humans. Second, it showed for the first time that macrophages infiltrate primary tumors in a subset of neuroblastoma patients, their products directly support tumor growth, and their presence at the tumor site is associated with poor clinical outcome. This discovery has been validated in large international study validated using large independent cohorts of patients, concluding that the presence of M2-like macrophages is associated with a novel inflammatory signature in neuroblastoma that serves as an independent prognostic factor of extremely poor outcome. Most recently, Dr. Metelitsa has been focused on the development of therapeutic applications using iNKTs and their synthetic ligands.

Dr. Sattva Neelapu is professor and deputy chair of Lymphoma and Myeloma at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. As a physician-scientist at MD Anderson, Dr. Neelapu is focused on clinical and translational development of novel immunotherapies for B-cell malignancies. His laboratory characterized some of the major immunosuppressive mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment of B-cell malignancies, identified TCL1 as a novel shared tumor-associated antigen for B-cell lymphomas, and investigated novel targets for CAR T-cell therapy in lymphoma and myeloma. His work on the pivotal trial of axicabtagene ciloleucel CD19 CAR T-cell therapy in aggressive B-cell lymphomas led to its FDA approval as the first CAR T therapy for lymphoma. Dr. Neelapu has authored or co-authored over 150 publications.

Presenting Athenex Cell Therapy Management:

Dr. Dan Lang has over 25 years of medicine, healthcare investment as well as leadership and business experience. Prior to joining Athenex, Dan was the Chief Investment Officer of the RS Value franchise focused on domestic equity strategies. Dan was on the executive team of RS Investment Management (RSIM) that led the sale of RSIM to Victory Capital in 2016. Prior to joining RSIM in 2009, he was an analyst at Farallon Capital Management covering biotech, medical device, pharma, and healthcare services globally. Previously, he was a senior associate at a venture capital firm, Brilleon Capital and the co-founder and CFO of Sapient Medical Group. Dan’s 25+ years of business and investment experience is preceded by a distinguished career in medicine. He was a post-doctoral research and clinical fellow in cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco and the Gladstone Cardiovascular Research Institute. He was board certified in internal medicine and a Chief Medical Resident at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Dan holds a BA in Chemistry from Cornell University and an MD from Cornell University Medical College.

Dr. Kurt Gunter has devoted his career to the development of cell and gene therapies and brings significant experience to Athenex from his previous positions at Kuur Therapeutics, Hospira, ViaCell, and Transkaryotic Therapies. As past President of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT), Dr. Gunter played a worldwide leadership role in promoting understanding of the clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, and marketing requirements for the successful development of cell and gene therapies. Prior to his biotech career, he worked at the United States Food and Drug Administration as a Medical Officer in the Center for Biologics and was appointed Acting Deputy Director of the Division of Cell and Gene Therapy within the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. He also served for 5 years on FDA’s Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee. He earned his MD from the University of Kansas and also has a BS in biological sciences, with distinction, from Stanford University. His postdoctoral training included Johns Hopkins and the US National Institutes of Health.

ASH Poster Presentation:

Session Name: 704. Cellular Immunotherapies: Clinical: Poster II
Date: Sunday, December 12, 2021
Presentation Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: Georgia World Congress Center, Hall B5

About the Phase I Study of KUR-502 (Allogeneic CD19 CAR-NKT Cells) in Patients with Relapsed or Refractory B-Cell Malignancies (ANCHOR)

The phase I study is an open-label, dose-escalation study. NKT cells were isolated from the leukapheresis product of one HLA-unmatched healthy individual, transduced with the CAR, expanded ex vivo for 14 days (99.8% NKT purity), and cryopreserved. Patients received 107 (DL 1) or 3×107 (DL 2) CAR-NKT cells per square meter of body surface area following lymphodepleting conditioning with cyclophosphamide/fludarabine. Adverse events were evaluated per NCI criteria. When accessible, patients underwent core biopsies of an involved site at 2-5 weeks post-infusion. Response to therapy was assessed at 4 weeks per Lugano Criteria (for NHL) or NCCN guidelines (for ALL).

For further information about the study, visit ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT03774654.

On November 30, 2021 Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, reported that the Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.69 per share of the company’s common stock for the first quarter of 2022 (Press release, Merck & Co, NOV 30, 2021, View Source [SID1234596264]). Payment will be made on Jan. 7, 2022 to shareholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 15, 2021.

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On November 30, 2021 MANA Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company creating nonengineered, off-the-shelf allogeneic cell therapies that target multiple cancer antigens, reported the final closing of its Series A financing, bringing the total raised to $42 million (Press release, MANA Therapeutics, NOV 30, 2021, View Source [SID1234596284]). In addition, MANA closed a $7.5 million venture debt facility with Silicon Valley Bank with an initial tranche of $5 million available immediately.

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"This additional funding will enable us to accelerate the start of our clinical studies for our novel approach to off-the-shelf allogeneic cell therapy for patients with transplant-ineligible AML and select solid tumors," said Martin Silverstein, M.D., President and CEO of MANA Therapeutics. "It will also permit building out our pipeline of MANA-512 candidates, which will apply new sets of antigens to the EDIFY platform.

"In the meantime, MANA-312, an allogeneic donor-derived cell therapy candidate, has progressed steadily through the Phase 1 clinical trial that we initiated earlier this year. This is encouraging progress and the data we are collecting will inform the development of our off-the-shelf programs, including MANA-412, which is expected to advance into clinical trials in 2022," continued Dr. Silverstein.

"Next-generation cell therapies continue to be one of the most promising approaches in immuno-oncology, but face meaningful obstacles to be safely and economically available in an allogeneic format. MANA is utilizing its proprietary ManaMatch HLA matching protocol to build a bank of readily accessible nonengineered off-the-shelf therapies that could treat the majority of patients in targeted cancer indications and allow for repeat dosing," said Marc Cohen, Co-founder of Cobro Ventures and Co-founder and Executive Chairman of MANA Therapeutics.

The additional Series A funding comes from new investors J&W Partners, a South Korean private equity firm, and SK Securities, a leading securities firm in South Korea. As part of the agreement, J&W Partners will gain a seat on MANA’s Board of Directors.

About EDIFY

MANA Therapeutics’ EDIFY platform constitutes the next-generation cell therapy approach by leveraging natural immune system pathways to educate T-cells to target unique sets of antigens expressed by tumors, without the need for genetic modification. The EDIFY platform uses dendritic cells as antigen presenting cells. The dendritic cells are loaded with ManaMix antigens and stimulate and expand T-cells to generate product candidates. Product candidates developed from the EDIFY platform are designed to increase efficacy through multiple antigen targeting and to support a strong safety profile by utilizing a nonengineered approach that could permit for repeat dosing of patients. The EDIFY platform uses a simplified, high-yield manufacturing process.