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Oncopeptides will host a webcast on Monday, January 27th at 11.00 (CET)

On January 24, 2020 Oncopeptides AB (Nasdaq Stockholm: ONCO) reported that it will host a webcast at 11am (CET) on Monday, January 27th 2020 where CEO Jakob Lindberg will present and explain melflufen’s mechanism of action (Press release, Oncopeptides, JAN 24, 2020, View Source [SID1234553532]).

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Conference call for investors, analysts and the media, Monday, January 27th 2020, at 11 (CET).

The conference call will also be streamed on the corporate website www.oncopeptides.com and via the link below.

View Source

The presentation will be available at:

www.oncopeptides.com / Investor Relations / Presentations / Presentation webcast melflufen mechanism-of-action/

For more information, please contact:
Rein Piir, Head of Investor Relations at Oncopeptides
E-mail: [email protected]
Cell phone: +46 70 853 72 92

This information was submitted for publication at 18.30 CET January 24, 2020.

About melflufen

Melflufen is a novel peptide-drug conjugate that rapidly delivers a cytotoxic payload into tumor cells. Melflufen is rapidly taken up by myeloma cells due to its high lipophilicity and is immediately cleaved by peptidases to deliver an entrapped hydrophilic alkylator payload. Peptidases play a key role in protein homeostasis and feature in cellular processes such as cell-cycle progression and programmed cell death. In vitro, melflufen is 50-fold more potent in myeloma cells than the alkylator payload itself due to the increased intracellular alkylator concentration. Melflufen displays cytotoxic activity against myeloma cell lines resistant to other treatments, including alkylators, and has also demonstrated inhibition of DNA repair induction and angiogenesis in preclinical studies.

IMV to Host Key Opinion Leader Symposium on Role of Survivin in Cancer Biology and Potential of DPX-Survivac

On January 24, 2020 IMV Inc. (Nasdaq: IMV; TSX: IMV), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering a novel class of immunotherapies, reported that it will host a key opinion leader symposium on the role of survivin in cancer biology and DPX-Survivac’s potential as a targeted immunotherapeutic agent across a range of tumor types (Press release, IMV, JAN 24, 2020, View Source [SID1234553529]). The event will be held on Thursday, February 27, 2020 from 8:30 – 10:00 a.m. ET in New York, NY.

The event will feature presentations by key opinion leaders, including:

Sally P. Wheatley, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham;

Jeannine Villella, D.O., FACOG, FACS, Chair of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lenox Hill Hospital and NYU Winthrop Hospital; and

Oliver Dorigo, M.D, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford University Medical Center.

Additionally, IMV management will provide a corporate update, including an overview of recent data from ongoing studies of DPX-Survivac, which is currently being evaluated in three Phase 2 studies in advanced ovarian cancer, relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and a basket of solid tumor indications. Topline results are expected from all three studies in 1H20.

A live webcast of the event will be available under "Events, Webcasts and Presentations" in the Investors section of IMV’s website and will be available for replay approximately two hours following the live event.

University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center Treats Its First Glioblastoma Patient With Genetically Modified Poliovirus

On January 24, 2020 University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center reported that it treated its first patient in a new clinical trial to validate the groundbreaking effects of the poliovirus on glioblastoma (GBM), a deadly Grade IV cancer of the brain (Press release, University Hospitals, JAN 24, 2020, View Source [SID1234553527]).

UH is the only Midwest site participating in this clinical trial, which was initiated at Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, NC. The original study, which ran from 2012-2017, was published in New England Journal of Medicine in July 2018 as well as highlighted on "60 Minutes" in 2015 and again in 2018. The study found that survival rates were significantly higher in glioblastoma patients who received an intratumoral infusion of a modified viral chimera combining the polio and rhinoviruses (PVSRIPO immunotherapy) compared to patients receiving standard treatment at the same institution.

"We are proud that University Hospitals was selected as one of a handful of top brain tumor centers such as the Massachusetts General Hospital and UCSF to participated in this Phase II clinical trial based on our expertise in immunotherapy and reputation for treating brain tumors," said Andrew E. Sloan, MD, FAANS, FACS, Director of the Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center and the Center of Excellence in Translational Neuro-Oncology at UH Seidman Cancer Center and the UH Neurological Institute. "We want to offer this treatment opportunity to patients with recurrent glioblastomas who want to pursue groundbreaking alternatives that may improve their chances of survival from the most challenging of brain cancers."

The 59-year-old man first enrolled in this trial suffered from glioblastoma that recurred after initial surgery and treatment. Following a biopsy to verify the progression of the brain tumor, Dr. Sloan placed a catheter into the tumor and the modified attenuated poliovirus was convected through the catheter into the tumor the next morning. Through this process, known as convection enhanced delivery (CED) and performed in the NeuroIntensive Care Unit at UH Cleveland Medical Center, the poliovirus attacks the tumor creating an anti-tumor immune response. The patient went home the next day.

"This trial uses a polio virus modified to specifically target a receptor (CD155) found only on tumor cells," Dr. Sloan said. "While it only kills a small number of tumor cells directly, the virus and the immune response it exerts exposes these tumor cells, which have been hiding from the immune system and creates a significant anti-tumor immune response that takes over and kills the rest of the tumor that the virus has not destroyed. Unlike the native polio virus, the modified virus does not attack neurons."

Traditionally, survival from a GBM is less than a year, and patients typically live less than six months after recurrence. The survival rate among those receiving PVSRIPO immunotherapy was 21 percent at 24 and 36 months, much higher than the 4 percent survival rate among historical controls treated at Duke, according to the article published in the New England Journal of Medicine on July 12, 2018.

Researchers at Duke first discovered that the poliovirus delivered directly into intracranial tumors was able to trigger a positive immune reaction, which led to a longer survival rate from the notoriously difficult-to-treat cancer. In Phase I of the clinical trial, doctors determined the correct dose of the virus to administer while mitigating side effects. In Phase II, researchers will compare outcomes in patients.

"The body has an amazing immunological memory," Dr. Sloan said. "If you’ve received the polio vaccine as a child, your immune system remembers that polio is a bad thing. The injection of the polio virus jump-starts the immune response, which in turn attacks the cancer."

Ervaxx and Cardiff University enter collaboration to develop novel  T-cell and T-cell receptor-based immunotherapeutics targeting  Dark Antigens™

On January 24, 2020 Ervaxx, a biotechnology company pioneering the use of Dark Antigens to develop T-cell receptor (TCR)-based immunotherapies and off-the-shelf cancer vaccines, reported that it has entered a licensing and research collaboration with a leading T-cell immunology group at Cardiff University (Cardiff, UK) (Press release, Ervaxx, JAN 24, 2020, View Source [SID1234553525]).

The new collaboration will support a multi-year research program with Prof. Andrew Sewell’s T-cell modulation group at Cardiff University focusing on the discovery and characterization of T-cells and TCRs reactive to cancer-specific antigens and ligands, including Ervaxx’ proprietary Dark Antigens. Ervaxx will fund the program.

The collaboration will also advance exciting new research published earlier this week by the Cardiff University team in Nature Immunology1, where they identified a T cell clone that recognized and killed multiple different types of human cancer, while remaining inert to non-cancerous cells. The T cell clone targets MR1, an MHC class 1-related protein, via an unidentified cancer-specific ligand. These exciting findings, validated in a preclinical model, open the prospect of immunotherapies with broad utility across patients with diverse cancers. This approach into previously unexplored cell surface epitopes complements and extends Ervaxx’s exploration of novel cancer-specific antigens.

Under the agreement, Ervaxx gains an exclusive license to relevant Cardiff University patents claiming T cells and TCRs reactive to cancer-specific antigens. The Company has the right to advance resulting candidate T-cell/TCR-based immunotherapeutics and cancer vaccines through development and commercialization. Cardiff University is eligible to receive milestone payments on any candidates that advance from the discovery collaboration into clinical development and royalty payments on sales of any products that reach the market.

"Ervaxx’s Dark Antigens, which are derived from the 98% of the genome that does not encode known proteins, constitute a promising and yet untapped source of targets for immunotherapies. This collaboration will use our world-class expertise in T-cell biology to identify T cells and TCRs reactive to those targets and pave the way for a new wave of treatments in cancer, and potentially other areas. This includes our most recent discovery, published in Nature Immunology, of a T-cell clone that targets MR1 to recognize and kill cancer cells, irrespective of cancer or human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type, offering opportunities for pan-cancer, pan-population cancer immunotherapies."

Prof. Andrew Sewell, Head of the T-cell modulation group, Cardiff University
"We are excited to announce this collaboration with Prof. Sewell’s world-class research group. We have great hope that through the combination of this expertise with our Dark Antigens and application of our EDAPT platform, we will be able to identify further targets to expand our portfolio of TCR-based therapies and cancer vaccines. We are also thrilled to contribute to the development of the group’s exciting new MR1 research, which shows early but enormous potential for the treatment of cancers. This partnership, which follows those with the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, reinforces our ambition to collaborate with leading academic institutions and be at the cutting edge of the T-cell immunology field to drive the development of novel off-the-shelf cancer therapies .

Ribon Therapeutics to Present at Upcoming Scientific Conferences

On January 24, 2019 Ribon Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing first-in-class therapeutics targeting novel enzyme families activated under cellular stress conditions, reported it will be presenting at two upcoming scientific conferences (Press release, Ribon Therapeutics, JAN 24, 2020, View Source [SID1234553520]).

PARP & DDR Inhibitors Summit
Jan. 28-30, 2020
Location: Revere Hotel, Boston, MA

Presentation: Not all PARPs are Alike: Exploring the Therapeutic Potential of PARPi Beyond PARP1 Inhibitors
Speaker: Heike Keilhack, SVP of Biological Sciences
Time: 10am ET, Wednesday, Jan. 29
SLAS 2020 International Conference and Exhibition
Jan. 25-29, 2020
Location: San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA

Podium presentation: A Bespoke Screening Platform to Study mono(ADP-ribosylation)
Speaker: Tim Wigle, Director, Molecular Discovery Group
Time: 2:30pm PT, Wednesday, Jan. 29
Poster presentation: Development of Novel Biochemical Assays for the Screening of MonoPARP Enzymes
Speaker: Dave Church, Sr. Research Associate, Molecular Discovery Group
Time: 5:00pm PT, Tuesday, Jan. 28