Infinity Pharmaceuticals Reports Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results and Provides Company Update

On July 27, 2021 Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: INFI) ("Infinity" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing eganelisib (IPI-549), a potentially first-in-class, oral, immuno-oncology macrophage reprogramming therapeutic, reported its second quarter 2021 financial results and provided a corporate update (Press release, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, JUL 27, 2021, View Source [SID1234585214]).

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Adelene Perkins, Chief Executive Officer and Chair, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, said, "Today we report data indicating that eganelisib re-programs macrophages in the tumor microenvironment, turning pro-tumor, M2, macrophages into anti-tumor, M1, macrophages and improves outcomes for patients in two distinct types of cancer. Specifically, when combined with current standard of care therapies, the data showed that eganelisib increased overall survival in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer and prolonged progression free survival in patients with TNBC. These data provide preliminary, but compelling evidence of eganelisib’s potential to improve outcomes for patients with these two types of cancer. Validation of the fundamental biologic hypothesis of eganelisib, and the resulting prospect of patient benefit, gives us great confidence in the future of eganelisib, Infinity and our ability to realize our vision of bringing better therapies to patients. In the months ahead, Infinity plans to work with investigators, key opinion leaders and regulatory authorities to carefully choose the most appropriate clinical paths forward and expects to provide an update by year end, together with an update on our maturing TNBC data."

Ms. Perkins continued, "We’re thrilled to have Dr. Peluso return to Infinity in the role of Chief Scientific Officer during this exciting time for Infinity. Stéphane served as a valued member of Infinity’s R&D Leadership Team during the discovery and preclinical development of eganelisib. His deep expertise will be incredibly valuable as we work to apply our clinical and translational learnings to maximize eganelisib’s unique role in re-programming macrophages and design the next set of clinical programs."

Dr. Peluso said, "I’m excited to return to Infinity to continue building on the extraordinary work of the Infinity team in the discovery and development of eganelisib. The translational and clinical data presented to date continue to support that eganelisib is working on-mechanism, as intended and described in Infinity’s earlier preclinical work, and I look forward to leveraging these data in helping select the best future development paths."

Corporate Update

Appointed Stéphane Peluso, Ph.D, as Chief Scientific Officer. Effective August 2, 2021, Dr. Peluso returns to Infinity from Ipsen Bioscience where he was most recently Vice President, Global Head of Oncology External Innovation. Prior to Ipsen, Dr. Peluso worked at Infinity where he held positions of increasing responsibility in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery ultimately leading Infinity’s early discovery and pipeline expansion efforts through both internal R&D and business development. Dr. Peluso started his career as a medicinal chemist at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. He graduated from the Ecole Supérieure de Chimie Industrielle de Lyon (ESCIL), France, obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and completed postdoctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Recent Eganelisib Updates and Program Guidance – data updates from MARIO-275 and MARIO-3 during KOL event today at 8:00AM ET are summarized in a separate press release to be issued this morning.

Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results:

At June 30, 2021, Infinity had total cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale securities of $97.3 million, compared to $106.8 million at March 31, 2021.
Research and development expense for the second quarter of 2021 was $8.0 million, compared to $6.1 million in the same period in 2020. The increase is primarily related to clinical, development and consulting expenses to support continued development of eganelisib.
General and administrative expense was $3.5 million for the second quarter of 2021, compared to $2.9 million for the same period in 2020. The increase in general and administrative expense is primarily due to an increase in consulting expenses and stock compensation.
Net loss for the second quarter of 2021 was $11.3 million, or a basic and diluted loss per common share of $0.13, compared to a net loss of $9.5 million, or a basic and diluted loss per common share of $0.16, in the same period in 2020.
Financial Outlook: Infinity’s 2021 financial guidance, following the closing in February 2021 of a $92 million public offering of Infinity’s common stock remains unchanged:

Net Loss: Infinity expects net loss for 2021 to range from $40 million to $50 million.
Cash and Investments: Infinity expects to end 2021 with a year-end-cash, cash equivalents and available for sale securities balance ranging from $70 million to $80 million. Infinity’s financial guidance does not include any potential additional funding or business development activities.
KOL Event Information

In lieu of an earnings conference call, Infinity will host a KOL event today, July 27, 2021, at 8:00AM ET to provide updates on the MARIO-3 TNBC and MARIO-275 UC clinical studies. Erika P. Hamilton, M.D. of Sarah Cannon Research Institute at Tennessee Oncology, and MARIO-3 lead investigator, and Brian Schwartz, M.D., Consulting Chief Physician of Infinity, will review the data for MARIO-3 and MARIO-275, respectively.

Regeneron and AstraZeneca to Research, Develop and Commercialize New Small Molecule Medicines for Obesity

On July 27, 2021 Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) and AstraZeneca reported that the companies have entered into a collaboration to research, develop and commercialize small molecule compounds directed against the GPR75 target with the potential to treat obesity and related co-morbidities (Press release, Regeneron, JUL 27, 2021, View Source [SID1234585231]). The collaboration builds on the recent discovery from the Regeneron Genetics Center of rare genetic mutations in the GPR75 gene associated with protection against obesity and on early joint research initiated soon after discovery of the target so that potential treatments can be developed as quickly as possible. The companies will evenly split research and development costs and share equally in any future potential profits.

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As published in Science, the new target was found by sequencing nearly 650,000 people and identifying individuals with rare protective mutations. Individuals with at least one inactive copy of the GPR75 gene had lower BMI and, on average, tended to weigh about 12 pounds less and faced a 54% lower risk of obesity than those without the mutation. Strong associations were also seen with improvements in diabetes parameters, including glucose lowering. Obesity and insulin resistance are key drivers in the development of type 2 diabetes and often lead to cardiorenal complications, as well as liver disease.

"The next era of medicine is being fueled by important genetics findings that direct drug developers on how to deploy our toolkit of biologics, small molecules and gene editing technologies in order to safely help patients in need," said George D. Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron. "As experts on genetics and human biology, Regeneron is excited to join forces with the chemistry and small molecule leaders at AstraZeneca, as we seek to develop new medicines tackling the harmful and costly obesity epidemic."

"We are pleased to announce this important collaboration with Regeneron to identify small molecule modulators against GPR75, a newly identified target with genetic validation in metabolic disorders. Obesity and insulin resistance remain key drivers in the development of type 2 diabetes and areas of significant unmet medical need," said Mene Pangalos, Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca.

Obesity is associated with many serious health complications and drives organ dysfunction, including in the heart, liver, kidneys and pancreas. Worldwide the prevalence of obesity has more than tripled since 1975, and approximately 650 million adults are estimated to live with obesity today.

iSpecimen to Report Second Quarter 2021 Results on August 10, 2021

On July 27, 2021 iSpecimen Inc. (Nasdaq: ISPC) ("iSpecimen" or the "Company"), an online marketplace for human biospecimens, reported that it will report its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021, before the market open on Tuesday, August 10, 2021 (Press release, iSpecimen, JUL 27, 2021, View Source [SID1234585247]).

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The Company will host a conference call and audio webcast that morning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time featuring remarks by Christopher Ianelli, MD, PhD, CEO and President, Tracy Curley, CFO, and Jill Mullan, COO.

For interested individuals unable to join the conference call, a replay will be available through August 24, 2021, at +1-844-512-2921 (U.S. Toll Free) or +1-412-317-6671 (International). Participants must use the following code to access the replay of the call: 13721607. An archived version of the webcast will also be available on iSpecimen’s Investor Relations site: View Source

More good safety results as Prescient Therapeutics continues cancer treatment tests

On July 27, 2021 Prescient Therapeutics reported that it has successfully finished a round of safety testing on its PTX-100 drug in a basket trial of patients with solid and blood cancers, revealing an "excellent" safety profile (Press release, Prescient Therapeutics, JUL 27, 2021, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=more-good-safety-results-as-prescient-therapeutics-continues-cancer-treatment-tests [SID1234585286]).

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On Tuesday, Prescient Therapeutics announced it had completed Phase 1b trials of its novel PTX-100 cancer treatment, with none of the ten patients in the study suffering serious adverse effects linked to the medication.

Additionally the study found PTX-100 was well tolerated by patients even at the highest administered dosage of 2,000 mg/m2.

Steven Yatomi-Clarke, Prescient Therapeutics’ Chief Executive, said he was "pleased" with the results, and noted there were other reasons for the company to celebrate.

Phase 1b testing was primarily designed to test for PTX-100’s safety profile, however clinical benefits were also observed in two of the study’s patients who have previously failed other treatments.

One of these patients had endured five failed treatments before joining the study, and each time was only able to control the disease for a few months before it advanced again.

Following the administration of PTX-100, the patient saw a reduction in their cancer burden and the disease has not progressed for 17 months.

The patient has undergone 24 treatment cycles with PTX-100 and is still taking the drug.

Another patient with cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) with K-Ras mutation also had aggressive disease and had failed three prior treatments. This patient had a partial response on the study, with reduced cancerous lesions and symptomatic relief. The patient was on therapy for 12 months, receiving 19 cycles of therapy.

"We are encouraged by the biological activity demonstrated by PTX-100 in certain patients on the basket trial with T cell lymphomas," Mr Yatomi-Clarke said.

"Whilst numbers are small, the observation is encouraging in that it indicates activity of PTX-100 as a monotherapy in patients where other therapies have failed."

"We look forward to exploring this in the expansion cohort study as we pursue the quickest route to market for PTX-100 in areas of unmet clinical need."

Positive results in OmniCAR testing
Earlier in July, separate immunogenicity testing on Prescient Therapeutics’ OmniCAR universal CAR-T platform provided similarly positive safety results.

The in-silico tests (meaning they were conducted by complex computer algorithms) found two binding components used in OmniCAR treatments, SpyTag and SpyCatcher, are unlikely to trigger adverse immune responses in patients.

However, Prescient Therapeutics did acknowledge that due to limitations with modern algorithms, in silico testing can often be over-predictive.

Even so, the results substantially de-risk the platform’s development and Mr Yatomi-Clarke said the results leave him confident patients’ immune systems won’t react dangerously to treatments.

OmniCAR is a next-generation CAR-T platform, designed to give medical practitioners greater control over traditional CAR-T treatments – which genetically re-engineer a patients’ own immune system to identify and attack cancerous cells.

The platform is also designed to make treatment safer for patients.

NexImmune to Announce Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results and Provide Corporate Update on August 9, 2021

On July 27, 2021 NexImmune, Inc. (Nasdaq: NEXI), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a novel approach to immunotherapy designed to orchestrate a targeted immune response by directing the function of antigen-specific T cells, reported it plans to report second quarter financial results and provide a corporate update on Monday, August 9, 2021, via press release, after market close (Press release, NexImmune, JUL 27, 2021, View Source [SID1234585303]).

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The press release will be accessible under the investor section of the NexImmune’s website at www.neximmune.com.