Merck & Co has filed a 10-Q – Quarterly report [Sections 13 or 15(d)] with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission .

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On May 5, 2021 Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRVS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, reported that it has completed the sale of approximately $10 million of its common shares pursuant to the Company’s ATM program established on March 9, 2020 through Jefferies LLC ("Jefferies"), acting as sales agent (Press release, Corvus Pharmaceuticals, MAY 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234579175]).

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An aggregate of 3,564,228 new shares were sold to EcoR1 Capital, a fundamental biotechnology-focused investment advisory firm, and 35,714 new shares were sold to Richard A. Miller, the Company’s co-founder, president and chief executive officer, at an at-the-market price of $2.80 per share. It is anticipated that the settlement and delivery of the new shares will take place on May 6, 2021.

A shelf registration statement on Form S-3 relating to Corvus’ securities being sold was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 19, 2020. Before purchasing shares, prospective investors should read the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, together with the documents incorporated by reference therein. Prospective investors may obtain these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, a copy of the prospectus supplement (and accompanying prospectus) relating to the offering may be obtained from Jefferies LLC, 520 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022 or by telephone at (877) 821-7388 or by email at [email protected].

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

On May 11, 2021Appia Bio, Inc., an early stage biotechnology company developing engineered allogeneic cell therapies from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) for cancer patients, reported its launch from stealth backed by $52 million Series A financing led by 8VC (Press release, Appia Bio, MAY 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234583854]). Other investors included Two Sigma Ventures, among others, and participation from seed investors Sherpa Healthcare Partners and Freeflow Ventures.

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Appia Bio is focused on discovering and developing off-the-shelf allogeneic cell therapies across a broad array of cancer indications, utilizing a scalable technology platform with the goal to increase access for patients. With its ACUA technology platform, Appia Bio leverages the biology of lymphocyte development with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T-cell receptor (TCR) gene engineering to generate CAR-engineered invariant natural killer T (CAR-iNKT) cells from HSCs. The ACUA platform originated from groundbreaking research in the laboratory of Lili Yang, PhD, associate professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and her collaborations with the Company’s other scientific founders.

Proceeds from the financing will support the advancement of Appia Bio’s pipeline of allogeneic CAR-iNKT cell therapy candidates into the clinic. As part of the Series A financing, Francisco Gimenez, PhD, partner, and David Moskowitz, PhD, principal, at 8VC, join the Company’s board of directors, and David Baltimore, PhD, of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) was elected chairman of the Board.

"There is tremendous potential to be explored in allogeneic cell therapies. The Board and I look forward to working with this stellar team to create transformative cell therapies that will help patients and the physicians who treat them," said Dr. Baltimore.

"We are grateful to our new and existing investors for their commitment to bring off-the-shelf allogeneic cell therapies to more patients," said JJ Kang, PhD, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Appia Bio. "This financing will position us to rapidly build out our CAR-iNKT pipeline and establish the clinical potential of our ACUA platform. We are excited to work with an outstanding Scientific Advisory Board that brings together world-class expertise and experience across the many fields necessary to develop cell therapies."

Appia Bio announced the establishment of a Scientific Advisory Board with leaders in immunology, immuno-oncology, and cell therapy engineering. These experts join Appia Bio’s scientific founders in advising the Company’s research and development.

Mitchell Kronenberg, PhD, president and CSO, La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, UCLA, and director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

Margo Roberts, PhD, former CSO, Kite Pharma and Lyell Immunopharma

"We are thrilled to partner with Appia Bio as it typifies the innovative, founder-driven start-ups we love to empower," said Dr. Gimenez. "Appia unifies compelling biology of iNKT cells with the power of CARs. This is only possible because of their fundamental innovations in manufacturing and engineering these cells."

The Company was founded in 2020 in Los Angeles, California, by a team of experts and industry leaders with a proven track record of cell therapy development and company building.

David Baltimore, PhD, Nobel Laureate, president emeritus and distinguished professor of biology, Caltech

JJ Kang, PhD, CEO, Appia Bio; former partner, The Column Group

Edmund Kim, PhD, chief operating officer of Appia Bio; former vice president of corporate development, Kite Pharma

Pin Wang, PhD, professor of chemical engineering and materials science and biomedical engineering, University of Southern California (USC)

Jeff Wiezorek, MD, chief medical officer, Appia Bio; former head of cell therapy development, Kite Pharma

Lili Yang, PhD, associate professor of microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics, UCLA

On May 5, 2021 Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) reported that the company will participate in a fireside chat at the 2021 Bank of America Securities Virtual Health Care Conference, which will be webcast on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 (Press release, Bristol-Myers Squibb, MAY 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234579211]). Chris Boerner, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Chief Commercialization Officer will answer questions about the company at 5 p.m. ET.

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Investors and the general public are invited to listen to a live webcast of the session at View Source An archived edition of the session will be available later that day.

On May 5, 2021 Castle Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSTL), a skin cancer diagnostics company providing personalized genomic information to improve cancer treatment decisions, reported data on its 15-gene expression profile (15-GEP) test, DecisionDx-UM, at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2021: Revolutionary Eye and Vision Research Meeting (Press release, Castle Biosciences, MAY 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234579228]).

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The virtual poster is entitled "Uveal Melanoma Patient Attitudes Towards Prognostic Testing Using Gene Expression Profiling."

DecisionDx-UM, the test highlighted in the poster, is Castle’s prognostic 15-GEP test for patients with uveal melanoma, a rare cancer of the eye that carries a high risk of spreading (metastasizing). The DecisionDx-UM test is designed to accurately identify patients who are at low risk (Class 1) or high risk (Class 2) of metastasis based on the unique biology of their primary tumor and is the current standard of care in the management of uveal melanoma at the majority of U.S. ocular oncology practices.

"Up to half of patients diagnosed with uveal melanoma will experience metastatic disease, and prior studies show that newly diagnosed patients have overwhelmingly been in favor of learning their prognoses," said first author Basil K. Williams, M.D., assistant professor and director of Ocular Oncology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. "This study demonstrated that uveal melanoma patients were satisfied with their decisions to pursue prognostic information through GEP testing, and they found particular value in DecisionDx-UM’s ability to help them understand their individual metastatic risk."

Study methods and findings:

The objective of the patient-based study was to understand uveal melanoma patients’ experiences following testing with DecisionDx-UM compared to patients with alternative or no prognostic testing.
An online questionnaire was distributed by the Melanoma Research Foundation’s CURE OM (Ocular Melanoma) initiative that captured de-identified information regarding patient-reported experiences. Patients were asked questions regarding the decision to undergo prognostic testing and the extent to which they felt regret about their decisions.
Of the 177 survey participants, 159 (90%) reported wanting prognostic information at diagnosis.
Of patients tested with DecisionDx-UM, the vast majority (80/81 respondents, 99%) reported gaining value from their test result, including:
Increased knowledge and understanding
More personalized treatment options
Information relevant to life planning
A sense of relief from uncertainty about the future
Of the patients who received prognostic testing with DecisionDx-UM, decision regret levels did not differ depending on whether they received a low or high-risk test result (Kruskal-Wallis; n=28, 23, 30 for 1A, 1B, 2; p=0.13).
Patients who received prognostic testing experienced lower levels of decision regret than those who opted out of testing, independent of which prognostic tests were used (Wilcoxon Rank-Sum tests: DecisionDx-UM vs. alternative tests: p=0.89, DecisionDx-UM vs. opt-out: p=0.0002, alternative tests vs. opt-out: p=0.003).