On February 16, 2021 Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTGX) reported that Dinesh V. Patel, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, reported that it will participate in a fireside chat at SVB Leerink Virtual 10th Annual Global Healthcare Conference taking place February 22 to February 26, 2021 (Press release, Protagonist, FEB 16, 2021, View Source [SID1234575157]).

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Fireside chat details:
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Time: 10:40 a.m. EST

A live and archived webcast of the event will be available at View Source and on the Investors section of the Protagonist Therapeutics website at View Source

On February 15, 2021 Nordic Nanovector ASA (OSE: NANOV) reported that it will report its results for the fourth quarter and full year 2020 on Thursday, 18 February 2021 (Press release, Nordic Nanovector, FEB 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234575078]).

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A presentation by Nordic Nanovector’s senior management team will be webcast live the same day at 8:30am CET.

The webcast can be accessed from www.nordicnanovector.com in the section: Investors & Media and a recording will also be available on this page after the event.

The results report and the presentation will be available at www.nordicnanovector.com in the section: Investors & Media/Reports and Presentation/Interim Reports/2020 from 7:00am CET the same day.

On February 15, 2021 SHEPHERD Therapeutics, a company dedicated to catalyzing lifesaving treatments for rare cancer patients, and Oncoheroes Biosciences, a biotech company focused on advancing new therapies for childhood cancer, reported they have entered into a partnership to collaborate in the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative drug products for rare oncology indications (Press release, Oncoheroes Biosciences, FEB 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234575079]).

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Out of 400 known distinct cancers, 380 are considered rare according to the American Cancer Society’s metric of an incidence of less than 6 per 100,000. Rare cancers affect almost one in three new patients, or over half a million Americans each year. Despite the prevalence of rare cancers, 2012-2016 data shows that 75% of all clinical trials did not specifically include even one rare cancer by name.

Childhood cancer is considered a rare disease that accounts for about 1% of all U.S. cancer diagnoses. Every year, cancer takes the lives of 90,000 children and adolescents worldwide, despite treatment advances in recent decades. Although cancer is the leading cause of death by disease among children in the United States, pediatric oncology treatments are lacking: Only five pediatric-specific drugs have been granted U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in the last 20 years versus more than 200 for adults.

Oncoheroes and SHEPHERD’s collaboration advances a paradigm change in drug development for rare cancers. The companies will use DELVE, SHEPHERD’s next-generation, precision-oncology platform that integrates bioinformatics, machine learning and mathematics, to unveil unprecedented insights into rare cancers, including childhood cancer. DELVE enables the companies to move beyond a single target-based approach to identify all of the primary mechanisms of action responsible for drug response and resistance within the human transcriptome.

The companies’ first project of the collaboration will identify additional pediatric and rare adult indications for Oncoheroes’ lead asset, volasertib. Volasertib is an inhibitor of Polo-like-kinase 1 (PLK1), an enzyme known to be involved in disease progression in a number of cancers. Volasertib has recently been granted Rare Pediatric Disease Designation (RPDD) and Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) by the FDA for the treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma, the most common soft tissue sarcoma in children and young adults, representing 3-4% of all childhood cancers.

"Getting a diagnosis of cancer as a child should not be a death sentence, yet too many lives are being lost or diminished because of a dearth of pediatric cancer research and treatments," said David Hysong, CEO of SHEPHERD. "SHEPHERD and Oncoheroes are coming together in hope and in action, leveraging the full extent of our combined technology, experience and expertise to help save lives."

"We are excited about this partnership between two mission-driven companies determined to address high unmet medical needs in the rare oncology space. We are confident that SHEPHERD’s technology, combined with Oncoheroes’ expertise in the pediatric oncology space, will deliver new therapeutics options to children and adolescents with cancer," stated Ricardo Garcia, CEO of Oncoheroes.

On February 15, 2021 BioTheryX, Inc., a clinical-stage company focused on degrading proteins to create life-saving medicines, reported that the company will participate virtually in the following scientific and investor events (Press release, BioTheryX, FEB 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234575080]):

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Targeted Protein Degradation & PROTAC Symposium
Tuesday, February 16, 2021, 16:30 GMT
Aparajita Hoskote Chourasia, Ph.D., Senior Director of Biology, will give a presentation entitled, "Developing Novel Cereblon-Directed PHMs as First-in-Class Targeted Protein Degradation Therapies".
North American Protein Degradation Congress
Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 3:00 pm ET
Leah Fung, VP, Medicinal Chemistry, will give a presentation entitled, "BioTheryX is Leveraging Novel Cereblon-Directed Molecular Glues to Discover First-in-Class TPD Therapies for Oncology".
LifeSci Partners Precision Oncology Day
Wednesday, February 17, 2021, 1:00 PM ET
Rob Williamson, President and CEO, will present an overview on the company’s targeted protein degradation platform and the management team will participate in 1x1s with investors.
BMO BioPharma Spotlight Series: Targeted Protein Degradation and Other Next Gen Protein Technologies
Thursday, February 18, 2021, 10:30 AM ET
Rob Williamson, President and CEO, will participate in a panel entitled "Ligating Competitors for Collaboration in the Protein Degradation Space", moderated by BMO analysts Matt Luchini and Nick Lenard.
Additional panel participants include Ian Taylor, CSO, Arvinas; Stew Fisher, CSO, C4 Therapeutics; and Jared Gollob, CMO, Kymera. In addition to the panel, the BioTheryX management team will also participate in 1x1s with investors during the event.
2021 SVB Leerink Global Healthcare Conference
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
The BioTheryX management team will participate in 1x1s with investors.

On February 15, 2021 , Eli Lilly reported The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has not recommended Eli Lilly’s Verzenios (abemaciclib) with fulvestrant for the treatment of advanced breast cancer patients (Press release, Eli Lilly, FEB 15, 2021, View Source [SID1234575342]).

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Lilly had been seeking a recommendation within Verzenios’ marketing authorisation, for treating hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced breast cancer in adults who have had endocrine therapy.

NICE has reviewed additional evidence, collected as part of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) managed access agreement for Verzenios plus fulvestrant in these breast cancer patients, to make this appraisal.

Typically, people with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer receive exemestane plus everolimus after endocrine therapy.

NICE said that there is uncertainty around Verzenios plus fulvestrant treatment because there is no evidence directly comparing this therapy to exemestane plus everolimus.

However, an indirect comparison suggests that people receiving Verzenios plus fulvestrant have longer before their disease progresses and live longer compared to people having exemestane plus everolimus.

NICE added that it is unclear how long people would have treatment for and therefore how much the treatment would cost.

On the cost-effectiveness front, NICE said that because of these uncertainties, estimates vary.

The ‘most likely’ estimates are higher than what NICE usually considers a cost-effective use of NHS resources.

"[The] news that NICE has been provisionally unable to approve Verzenios with fulvestrant for routine use on the NHS following its time on the Cancer Drugs Fund is a devastating blow for thousands of women with incurable secondary breast cancer who could benefit from this innovative treatment in future," said Delyth Morgan, chief executive at Breast Cancer Now.

"Verzenios with fulvestrant is an example of continued advances in treatment and care for secondary breast cancer and it’s deeply concerning that new patients could be denied the chance to benefit from this progress.

"While treatment will continue for women currently receiving it, NICE, NHS England and Lilly UK must work swiftly together to explore all possible solutions to see this provisional decision reversed, including considering additional discounts. Unless this happens, patients in the future will pay the price of being denied the precious chance this treatment brings to live well for longer," she added.

The draft recommendation will not affect treatment for those who have already been receiving Verzenios plus fulvestrant via the CDF.

The combination treatment will no longer be available in the CDF for this indication if the final guidance does not recommend Verzenios plus fulvestrant therapy.