On April 27, 2020 ROME Therapeutics, a biotechnology company harnessing the power of the repeatome in drug development, reported that launched with $50 million in Series A funding from GV, ARCH Venture Partners and Partners Innovation Fund (Press release, Rome Therapeutics, APR 27, 2020, View Source [SID1234556617]). ROME was founded to discover and develop novel therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases by leveraging new insights from the vast uncharted territory of the repeatome – the roughly 60% of the human genome consisting of repetitive sequences of nucleic acids, known as repeats. Drawing on deep expertise in oncology, virology, immunology and machine learning, the ROME team has identified several promising drug targets and launched multiple discovery programs.

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The overwhelming majority of industry drug discovery programs target the roughly 2% of the human genome which encodes for proteins. Repeats have long been dismissed as "junk DNA." However, recent discoveries at this frontier of biology have made it clear that the repeatome is a rich and complex ecosystem. Among other elements, it contains the remnants of ancient viruses which have integrated into the human genome over time. In addition to being vital for embryonic development, these viral-like strands of genetic material are activated in times of stress and may play a significant role in driving diseases such as cancer, as malignant cells co-opt the repeats to facilitate their own survival and growth. These insights are the foundation of ROME’s pioneering work to discover and develop repeatome-based therapeutics.

ROME is led by CEO, President and Co-founder Rosana Kapeller, M.D., Ph.D., who incubated the company during her tenure as an entrepreneur-in-residence at GV, where she is currently a Fellow. In her previous role as founding Chief Scientific Officer at Nimbus Therapeutics, Dr. Kapeller led the company’s initiative to apply advanced computational technologies to the design and development of novel therapeutics. Notably, she led discovery and development of a new class of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC) inhibitors for NASH, later acquired by Gilead Sciences.

"At ROME, we have set out a bold goal: To drive even the most difficult-to-treat cancers and autoimmune diseases into sustained remission," Dr. Kapeller said. "Too many patients do not benefit from today’s therapies, or experience only a partial response that quickly fades. We believe the repeatome holds the key to longer-lasting interventions. Our scientific founders together with our team have made excellent progress in exploring this uncharted territory and identifying promising therapeutic paths. With the support of our outstanding investors and advisors, we’re moving quickly to advance our therapeutic programs."

"By targeting this uncharted territory, ROME has the potential to open up huge new stretches of the genome for drug discovery," said Kristina Burow, Managing Director, ARCH Venture Partners and a member of ROME’s Board of Directors. "We are thrilled to be working alongside the ROME team as they seek to develop novel therapies for intractable cancers and autoimmune diseases."

"Rosana has brought together some of the best minds in oncology, immunology, virology and machine learning to create a novel approach to harnessing the power of the repeatome," said Krishna Yeshwant, M.D., General Partner at GV and a member of ROME’s Board of Directors. "We believe that ROME has the insights and expertise to turn cutting-edge discoveries in this field into an important new class of medicines, and we’re proud to continue working with Rosana and her team as they drive their programs forward."

On April 27, 2020 CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTMX), a clinical-stage oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company pioneering a novel class of investigational antibody therapeutics based on its Probody therapeutic technology platform, reported first quarter 2020 financial results on Thursday, May 7, 2020, after the close of U.S. markets (Press release, CytomX Therapeutics, APR 27, 2020, View Source [SID1234556616]). Following the announcement, the company will host a conference call beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET to discuss its results.

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Participants may access the live audio webcast of the teleconference from the "Investors & News" section of CytomX’s website at View Source Please access the website 15 minutes prior to the start of the call to download and install any necessary audio software.

Audio Conference Call:

U.S. Dial-in Number: (877) 809-6037

International Dial-in Number: (615) 247-0221

Conference ID: 6282129
An archived webcast replay will be available on the Company’s website from May 7, 2020, until May 14, 2020.

On April 27, 2020 Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN), a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a leader in predictive target discovery, reported that results from its ongoing Phase 1 dose escalation study of COM701, a first-in-class anti-PVRIG antibody, in patients with advanced solid tumors who have exhausted all available standard therapies, at the 2020 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Virtual Annual Meeting I, today at 11:45 am EDT (Press release, Compugen, APR 27, 2020, View Source [SID1234556615]).

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COM701 was well-tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities observed as a monotherapy and in combination with Opdivo (nivolumab). Furthermore, COM701 demonstrated encouraging signals of anti-tumor activity with high disease control rate in both the monotherapy and combination therapy arms (69% and 75%, respectively), including two confirmed partial responses and durable responses of over six months across cohorts, in the heavily pretreated patients enrolled in the study.

"I am highly encouraged by the safety profile and preliminary anti-tumor activity observed with COM701 both as a monotherapy and in combination with nivolumab," said Ryan J. Sullivan, M.D., Assistant Professor, Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Faculty Member of the Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy and Immunotherapy Programs at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and presenting author. "With a highly refractory and all comer patient population, this trial enrolled patients that are difficult to treat including those who progressed on numerous prior therapies. Achieving durable disease control, including partial responses, is remarkable in this population and I am particularly enthusiastic about the proportion of patients in the combination arm, currently 50%, who remain on treatment. Taken together, these results support further investigation of targeting PVRIG with COM701 and suggest that targeting the PVRIG/TIGIT pathways may broaden the patient population that can benefit from immunotherapies."

Anat Cohen-Dayag, Ph.D., President and CEO of Compugen, said, "We are thrilled to see durable responses in patients with extremely challenging cancer types with poor prognosis. These findings from the completed monotherapy dose escalation and ongoing combination dose escalation study arms continue to support the potential of COM701 as a monotherapy and in combination with nivolumab in patients who have exhausted all available treatment options. Notably, the ongoing responses in microsatellite stable colorectal cancer and primary peritoneal cancer, a type of ovarian cancer, are supportive of our biomarker-informed selection of indications for the monotherapy expansion cohorts."

The reported data are from the monotherapy and combination arms of the ongoing, Phase 1, open label, dose escalation study and include all eight cohorts from the monotherapy arm (n=16), and the first three of four cohorts of the combination arm (n=12).

Key findings to be presented by Dr. Sullivan in an oral virtual presentation titled "COM701 Demonstrates Antitumor Activity as Monotherapy and in Combination with Nivolumab in Patients with Advanced Malignancies" include:

COM701 was well-tolerated through 20 mg/kg IV Q4 weeks as a monotherapy and 10 mg/kg IV Q4 weeks in combination with Opdivo (480 mg IV Q4 weeks) with no dose-limiting toxicities reported.

No increased toxicity was observed in the combination arm.

No patients discontinued treatment due to toxicity of any study drug.

Preliminary COM701 pharmacokinetic data supports IV Q4 weeks dosing, allowing dosing schedule with Opdivo.

Encouraging disease control rates of 69% (11/16) for monotherapy and 75% (9/12) for combination arm.

50% of patients (6/12) in the combination arm remain on study, some with continued responses observed beyond 200 days of treatment.

Across cohorts, durable responses of stable disease for over six months in six of 28 (21%) patients.

The two patients previously reported with confirmed partial responses, one from the monotherapy arm (microsatellite stable primary peritoneal cancer) and one from the combination arm (microsatellite stable colorectal cancer), remain on treatment.

Enrollment in the COM701 monotherapy dose escalation arm is completed and enrollment in the combination dose escalation arm at 20 mg/kg IV Q4 weeks is ongoing. The monotherapy expansion cohorts that will follow the monotherapy dose escalation arm is based on a biomarker-informed selection of indications, and will include non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian, breast, endometrial and colorectal cancer. During this monotherapy expansion study, biopsies will be collected before and on COM701 treatment to allow retrospective analyses of Compugen’s DNAM axis biomarker approach.

About the COM701 Phase 1 Study
The Phase 1 open-label clinical trial of COM701 is designed to assess the safety and tolerability of administering escalating doses of COM701 monotherapy as well as of combination administration with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo (nivolumab) in patients with advanced solid tumors. Additionally, secondary endpoints include preliminary antitumor activity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of COM701 monotherapy and in combination with Opdivo (nivolumab) in patients with selected tumor types, including non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, endometrial cancer and colorectal cancer. Additional information is available at www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT 03667716).

About COM701
COM701 is a humanized antibody that binds with high affinity to PVRIG, a novel immune checkpoint discovered computationally by Compugen, and blocks the interaction with its ligand, PVRL2. TIGIT, discovered by Compugen’s computational discovery platform in 2009, and PVRIG constitute parallel immune checkpoint pathways that counteract DNAM, a costimulatory molecule on T cells and NK cells. Preclinical data suggest that the blockade of PVRIG induces a robust anti-tumor immune response and demonstrates synergistic activity when used in combination with inhibitors of TIGIT and/or PD-1. Currently, COM701 is being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical study. Data from the ongoing study have shown that COM701 is well-tolerated and demonstrated preliminary signals of anti-tumor activity in a heavily pretreated patient population.

On April 27, 2020 AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) ("AbbVie") reported the extension of the expiration date of the offers to exchange (each, an "Exchange Offer" and, collectively, the "Exchange Offers") any and all outstanding notes of certain series issued by Allergan Finance, LLC ("Allergan Finance"), Allergan, Inc. ("Allergan Inc"), Allergan Sales, LLC ("Allergan Sales") and Allergan Funding SCS ("Allergan Funding" and, together with Allergan Finance, Allergan Inc and Allergan Sales, "Allergan") (the "Allergan Notes") for new notes to be issued by AbbVie (the "AbbVie Notes") and the related consent solicitations (each, a "Consent Solicitation" and, collectively, the "Consent Solicitations") being made by AbbVie on behalf of Allergan to adopt certain amendments to each of the indentures (each, an "Allergan Indenture") governing the Allergan Notes (Press release, AbbVie, APR 27, 2020, View Source [SID1234556614]). AbbVie hereby extends such expiration date from 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on May 1, 2020 to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on May 8, 2020 (as the same may be further extended, the "Expiration Date").

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On the early participation date of November 7, 2019, requisite consents were received and supplemental indentures were executed eliminating substantially all of the covenants, restrictive provisions, events of default and any guarantees of the related Allergan Notes in each Allergan Indenture. Such supplemental indentures will become operative only upon settlement of the Exchange Offers.

The Exchange Offers and Consent Solicitations were commenced in connection with AbbVie’s previously announced proposed acquisition of Allergan plc (the "Acquisition") and are being made pursuant to the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the confidential offering memorandum and consent solicitation statement, dated October 25, 2019, and the related letter of transmittal, each as amended by the press releases dated November 18, 2019, December 20, 2019, January 27, 2020, February 24, 2020, March 9, 2020, March 23, 2020, April 6, 2020 and April 20, 2020 and as amended hereby (collectively, the "Offering Documents"), and are conditioned upon the closing of the Acquisition, which condition may not be waived by AbbVie, and certain other conditions that may be waived by AbbVie.

The settlement date for the Exchange Offers is expected to occur promptly after the Expiration Date and the Expiration Date of each of the Exchange Offers is expected to be extended to occur on or about the closing date of the Acquisition. As a result, the Expiration Date may be further extended one or more times. AbbVie currently anticipates providing notice of any such extension in advance of the Expiration Date.

On April 27, 2020 MacroGenics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGNX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, reported data related to flotetuzumab, an investigational, bispecific CD123 x CD3 DART molecule being evaluated in patients with refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (Press release, MacroGenics, APR 27, 2020, View Source [SID1234556612]). The data will be presented during a plenary session at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Virtual Annual Meeting I, taking place April 27-28, 2020.

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"Patients with TP53 mutated AML respond poorly to induction therapy and have a dismal prognosis. The current study suggests that TP53 mutational status correlated with an immune-infiltrated tumor microenvironment that was associated with response to flotetuzumab in our ongoing Phase 1/2 study in refractory disease," said Scott Koenig, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO of MacroGenics. "This analysis further elucidates potential immune drivers of response to flotetuzumab and supports its potential for treating patients with particularly challenging disease and who have limited treatment options."

The current study was conducted by Professor Sergio Rutella, M.D., Ph.D., FRCPath, at the John van Geest Cancer Research Centre at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, in collaboration with MacroGenics and NanoString Technologies, Inc. The data suggests that TP53 mutations in AML associate with an immune-infiltrated tumor microenvironment (TME) characterized by high expression of IFN-γ signaling molecules and immune checkpoints. This inflammation signature was previously found to be associated with response to flotetuzumab immunotherapy in a Phase 1/2 study in patients with AML who were refractory to induction treatment (primary induction failure). In this new study, among patients with TP53 mutated AML who were treated with flotetuzumab, 45.5% (5/11) showed evidence of anti-leukemic activity, including two patients with complete remission (CR), one patient with a CR with partial hematologic recovery (CRh), and one patient with morphologic leukemia-free state (MLFS) per International Working Group (IWG) criteria. Furthermore, median overall survival (OS) of flotetuzumab-treated patients with TP53 abnormalities was 4 months (range 1.25-21.25), compared to an estimated median OS of 1 month (Stichting Hemato-Oncologie voor Volwassenen Nederland, HOVON, Rotterdam, NL).

AACR Virtual Presentation

Title: TP53 abnormalities correlate with immune infiltration and are associated with response to flotetuzumab, an investigational immunotherapy, in acute myeloid leukemia
Session: VCTPL03 – Immunotherapy Clinical Trials 1
Date: April 27, 2020
Time: 1:25 pm – 1:35 pm ET
Location: AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Virtual Annual Meeting I at www.aacr.org

After the presentation, Dr. Rutella’s slides will be available on the Events & Presentations page on MacroGenics’ website at View Source

About Acute Myeloid Leukemia

AML is a hematological malignancy characterized by differentiation arrest and uncontrolled clonal proliferation of neoplastic precursors that prevent normal bone marrow hematopoiesis. Nearly 20,000 new cases of AML are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, with a median age of 69 years at diagnosis. Approximately 40-50% of newly diagnosed patients fail to achieve a complete remission with intensive induction therapy (primary induction failure) or experience disease recurrence after a short remission duration (<6 months; early relapsed). A very small number of these patients are expected to respond to salvage therapy. Although new targeted agents have been approved for the treatment of frontline or relapsed/refractory AML in recent years, approximately 50% of patients have no known targetable mutations.

About Flotetuzumab

Flotetuzumab (also known as MGD006) is a clinical-stage bispecific DART molecule that recognizes both CD123 and CD3. CD123, the interleukin-3 receptor alpha chain, has been reported to be over-expressed on malignant cells in AML and other hematologic malignancies. The primary mechanism of action of flotetuzumab is believed to be its ability to redirect T lymphocytes to kill CD123-expressing cells. To achieve this, the DART molecule combines a portion of an antibody recognizing CD3, an activating molecule expressed by T cells, with an arm that recognizes CD123 on the target cells.

Flotetuzumab is currently being evaluated in the U.S. and Europe in a Phase 1/2 study (NCT02152956) designed to assess the safety, tolerability, and initial anti-leukemic activity of the molecule in patients with relapsed/refractory AML. Data from the ongoing clinical study were presented in December 2019 at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) (Free ASH Whitepaper) Annual Meeting. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted orphan drug designation to flotetuzumab for the treatment of AML. Pending discussions with FDA, MacroGenics plans to define a registration path for flotetuzumab in the U.S. for patients with AML who are refractory to induction treatment (primary induction failure) in the first half of 2020.