On June 22, 2020 BioInvent reported that Alexander Eggermont, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at the Princess Máxima Center and renowned expert in immunotherapy showcased the broad potential of BI-1206 in enhancing checkpoint inhibitors in solid cancers in a KOL event hosted by BioInvent on July 21 (Press release, BioInvent, JUL 22, 2020, View Source [SID1234562260]).

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Professor Eggermont discussed the clinical challenges associated with the use of checkpoint inhibitors in solid tumors and the potential for an enhanced response with immune-modulatory antibodies, specifically those targeting FcγRIIB, such as BI-1206.

"The most important message to take away from this presentation – BI-1206 has the potential to go across multiple tumor types, much like pembrolizumab which is approved in over 20 different cancer types," said professor Eggermont.

BioInvent’s lead pipeline candidate BI-1206 is a first-in-class monoclonal antibody that targets FcγRIIB – the only inhibitory Fcγ receptor that acts as a "brake" on the innate immune system – to unleash antibody-mediated reactivation of the immune response against cancer.

"We are thrilled with the strong support for the potential broad use of BI-1206 in many different cancers from such a renowned expert as professor Eggermont," said Martin Welschof, CEO of BioInvent.

Professor Eggermont highlighted three main advantages of BI-1206.

To begin with, BI-1206 can give better and prolonged anti-PD1 blocking and thus, it has the potential to be used in many first line indications across multiple tumor types.

Furthermore, BI-1206 can overcome resistance to anti-PD1. It enhances the activity of, for example rituximab and overcomes resistance to those agents. It is an enhancer that has potential to go across multiple tumor types in refractory settings by blocking FcγRIIB interaction.

Last but not least. Dosing of BI-1206 may be different in 1st and 2nd line and be different in different tumor types. BI-1206 can be optimized and dosed as needed which gives a big potential for a wide development pathway.

"The simplicity of the BI-1206 model is very attractive. BI-1206 has an additive or synergistic, further enhancement of anti-PD-1 function. It has tremendous potential as it can be used in multiple indications," concluded professor Eggermont.

For further detail please listen to the call: link

Prof. Alexander M.M. Eggermont, MD, PhD is an internationally recognized expert in surgical oncology, immunotherapy, melanoma, sarcoma and cancer drug development. He currently holds roles as Chief Scientific Officer at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, the Netherlands; Professor of Oncology (Classe Exceptionelle) at Paris-Saclay University, France; Coordinator, Comprehensive Cancer Center Program for Deutsche KrebsHilfe; and Strategic Advisor at the German Cancer Consortium (DKFZ).

Prof. Eggermont was previously Director General of Gustave Roussy Comprehensive Cancer Center, Villejuif, France (2010-2019); and Professor of Surgical Oncology (2003-2016) and Endowed Professor of International Networking in Cancer Research (2011-2018) at Erasmus University MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in tumor immunology from Erasmus University and is Fellow of the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NIH-NCI). Prof. Eggermont has served as President of ECCO, President of the EORTC, was a member of the Board of Directors of ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper), served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and is currently Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Cancer. Prof. Eggermont has published more than 900 peer-reviewed papers and his expertise has been acknowledged by many professional awards throughout his career.

On July 22, 2020 Ultivue, Inc. reported a collaborative partnership with OracleBio to help further insights and advance personalized tumor characterization in translational and clinical oncology research and drug development using multiplex immunofluorescence staining and imaging (Press release, Ultivue, JUL 22, 2020, View Source [SID1234562259]).

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The deal connects the histopathology image analysis expertise of OracleBio and the tissue staining capabilities of Ultivue, with the goal of providing pharmaceutical companies with an end-to-end workflow for gaining valuable insights from biomarkers in situ.

OracleBio, a contract research organization based in Scotland, is known for its quantitative digital pathology services, delivering high-quality image analysis while leveraging multiple software platforms in supporting clinical and pre-clinical research.

"OracleBio aim to deliver robust quantitative histopathology data deployed within a quality framework, and that analysis can be heavily dependent on the quality of sample preparation and staining," says Lorcan Sherry, CSO of OracleBio. "Being able to partner with Ultivue means we can be confident in the staining of the tissue we’re quantifying, which ultimately means more precise data."

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Ultivue develops reagents for staining tissues used for multiplex immunofluorescence imaging and analysis. Its proprietary InSituPlex technology is designed for fast and comprehensive exploration of biologically-relevant markers in tissue samples.

"We’ve developed reagents that are workflow-agnostic and can plug-and-play in most customers’ existing laboratory infrastructure, so it makes sense to partner with a like-minded imaging and analysis CRO like you have in OracleBio. At the end of the day, our goal is always to offer our customers relevant and meaningful biological insights from their samples, regardless of their preferred hardware or software," says Jacques Corriveau, President and CEO of Ultivue.

On July 22, 2020 CURE Media Group, which reaches over 1 million patients, survivors and caregivers across an industry-leading multimedia platform devoted solely to cancer updates and research, reported the addition of the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer to its Strategic Alliance Partnership (SAP) program (Press release, GO2 Foundation, JUL 22, 2020, View Source [SID1234562258]).

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"We are excited and proud to partner with the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer," said Mike Hennessy Jr., president and CEO of MJH Life Sciences, the parent company of CURE Media Group. "They work to empower the lung cancer community to help improve care, increase survivorship and drive advocacy for awareness of the disease."

The GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer was founded by lung cancer patients and survivors and is the world’s leading organization dedicated to saving, extending and improving the lives of those vulnerable, at risk and diagnosed with lung cancer. The foundation strives to change the reality of living with lung cancer by ending stigma about the disease, increasing public and private research funding, and ensuring access to care.

"We are proud to continue to work alongside CURE Media Group to educate, inform, support, and bring hope to the lung cancer community," said Laurie Fenton Ambrose, co-founder, president and CEO of GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer. "Every patient and caregiver matters, and this partnership allows us to extend our life-saving efforts to a broader community. We live up to our mantra of Whatever it takes. Whatever the need. We get it done together."

The SAP program builds a community of advocacy groups, medical associations and medical institutions to foster collaboration and an open exchange of information among trusted peers for the ultimate benefit of patients and their families. As part of this joint effort, CURE Media Group will work with the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer to share exclusive content and support the lung cancer community.

On June 22, 2020 Eikonoklastes Therapeutics, a preclinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation tissue factor (TF) immunotherapies for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and several other diseases with unmet clinical need, reported closing of an oversubscribed seed financing (Press release, Eikonoklastes Therapeutics, JUL 22, 2020, View Source [SID1234562257]). Working with The Ohio State University Corporate Engagement Office and seed investor CincyTech, the company was formed to advance technology discovered and engineered in the lab of Dr. Zhiwei Hu, MD, PhD, and licensed from the Ohio State Innovation Foundation. CincyTech led the financing.

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Eikonoklastes is developing novel immunotherapies that target tissue factor, a cell surface receptor that is prevalent in certain pathological cells– but not healthy cells– including a broad range of cancers with high unmet clinical need and high morbidity. The lead indication is triple- negative breast cancer, an aggressive cancer which accounts for 15% of all breast cancers, with an average mortality of ~18 months post diagnosis.

"There is an urgent and critical need for a novel approach," said Bruce Halpryn, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Eikonoklastes. "Eikonoklastes’ platform technology is designed for maximum efficacy and a superior safety profile, using targeted killing without the need for a toxic payload. This is a tremendous opportunity to treat numerous diseases."

Eikonoklastes’ L-ICON3 immune conjugate platform was discovered and engineered by scientific founder, Zhiwei Hu, MD, PhD, an early pioneer of tissue factor physiology, who has worked to leverage tissue factor as a highly specific and highly selective target for therapy. In his lab at Ohio State, Dr Hu has engineered molecules which attack three key components of the tumor microenvironment: the tumor cells, the disease neovasculature and tumor stem cells; activating the body’s natural immune reaction. These novel and proprietary molecules are the third generation of technology that Dr. Hu initially designed while at Yale University.

"Dr. Hu has worked on several iterations of the technology that Eikonoklastes has licensed. We are grateful for his partnership and his dedication to discovery and innovation," said Scott Osborne, vice president of economic and corporate engagement at Ohio State.

The seed round will enable the company to complete a confirmatory in vivo I.V. efficacy study, to study I.V. pharmacokinetics, and to initiate manufacturing scaleup. The company will be headquartered in Cincinnati, OH.

"We are impressed with the breadth of the opportunity, which has the potential to address critical needs for patient populations across a broad range of cancers and other diseases," said John Rice, PhD, Managing Director at CincyTech. "We are also pleased to invest in the Eikonoklastes team, led by a seasoned and successful entrepreneur in Bruce Halpryn, with whom we had worked previously on Myonexus Therapeutics."

Halpryn and Chief Scientific/Medical Officer Mark Dato, MD, PhD, are both drug development industry veterans who worked together at P&G Pharmaceuticals. More recently Halpryn was COO of Myonexus Therapeutics, a gene therapy company also backed by CincyTech that was acquired by Sarepta Therapeutics in 2019. Halpryn then approached CincyTech about his next venture, co-founding Eikonoklastes with Sam Lee, MD, MBA, MPH, who will serve as Chief Business Officer. Details of the financing are undisclosed.

On July 22, 2020 ERC-USA, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, reported that NYU Winthrop Hospital (NYU) has agreed to treat one of its recurrent, refractory glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients with ERC’s lead therapy, ERC1671, under federal and state Right-to-Try laws (RTT) (Press release, Epitopoietic Research, JUL 22, 2020, View Source [SID1234562256]).

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The expansion of ERC’s RTT program makes its unique immuno-oncology GBM treatment, ERC1671, available to a wider number of patients who have exhausted all other treatment options. NYU joins the University of California, Irvine Medical Center and John Theurer Cancer Center Hackensack, NJ in treating recurrent, refractory GBM patients with ERC1671 under RTT. GBM is the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer and patients with this recurrent, refractory disease have very few options.

ERC1671 has demonstrated a clinically meaningful survival benefit among treated patients with minimal toxicity in phase 2 clinical trials. In June, ERC announced that it had submitted its Marketing Authorization Application for ERC1671 to the European Medicines Agency for conditional approval.

ERC will shortly publish a summary of its RTT experience that will include the total number of patients and median survival data. The Company previously communicated that oncologists are reporting that certain terminal patients treated with ERC1671 under RTT are experiencing unprecedented regressions of their disease. Normally, regression of recurrent glioblastoma is not experienced. One patient has already demonstrated a remission that is now in its eighteenth month with no sign of recurrence. The durability of these responses is still not known, but to the families of these patients the responses are unexpected and welcome, and they are restoring some normalcy to the lives of these terminal patients and their families.

"We are extremely eager to expand our RTT program to NYU Winthrop Hospital and we are encouraged and excited by the responses we’ve observed so far in RTT patients to ERC1671. As awareness of ERC1671 grows in the neuro-oncology community, we have been experiencing a major increase in requests for treatment under RTT protocols," commented Apostolos Stathopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of ERC Belgium, parent company to ERC-USA.

About ERC 1671

ERC1671 (Gliovac or Sitoiganap) is an advanced immunotherapy based on freshly extracted tumor cells and lysates that stimulates the patient’s immune system to recognize and reject cancer cells. The ERC1671 contains a combination of autologous tumor cells (cells from the patient receiving the treatment), and allogeneic tumor cells, generated from the glioma tumor tissues of three different donor cancer patients, and the lysates of all of these cells. Upon injection, this mixture stimulates the patient’s immune system to mount an immune response against the tumor cells, which may lead to their destruction.

Gliovac/ERC1671 is for patients suffering from a grade IV glioma (glioblastoma multiforme and gliosarcoma) when all other traditional treatments have failed. Further studies will target patients with newly diagnosed glioma with predictive marker indicating, unresponsiveness to Temozolomide chemotherapy (MGMT gene promoter unmethylation).

ERC1671 is currently in randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 2 clinical trials in the United States as part of combination treatment for glioblastoma multiforme and gliosarcoma and its Marketing Authorization Application has been submitted to the European Medicines Agency for conditional approval. The company’s therapeutic approach can be potentially applied to many other types of solid cancers.

ERC is based in Belgium with a cGMP manufacturing plant in the Netherlands and subsidiaries in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and an international presence through country specific agreements. To learn more, please visit View Source