On June 15, 2020 Sensei Biotherapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing precision immuno-oncology therapies, reported the appointment of Marie-Louise Fjällskog, M.D., Ph.D., as Chief Medical Officer, responsible for leading clinical and development strategy and operations (Press release, Sensei Biotherapeutics, JUN 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234561096]). Dr. Fjällskog joins Sensei from Merus, where she served as Vice President Clinical Development and led the development of several clinical and preclinical bispecific antibody therapeutics.

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"We are thrilled to welcome Marie-Louise to our team. Her deep knowledge of oncology research and medicine from both an industry and academic perspective are a strong addition to Sensei as we prepare for key Phase 2 readouts and additional INDs in the coming months," said John Celebi, CEO of Sensei Biotherapeutics. "I’m excited to welcome her to Sensei as she shares our commitment to patients, our values, and culture. Her experience developing early stage programs into commercial products will be instrumental as our pipeline continues to mature and we evolve into a late-stage oncology development company over the next several years."

"Sensei’s unique approach represents an exciting new wave of oncology research and development that I am extremely excited to be a part of," said Marie-Louise Fjällskog, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Sensei Biotherapeutics. "I look forward to continuing the development of SNS-301 and working to expand the company’s pipeline. Immunophage therapies are a new approach for cancer and infectious diseases that have the potential to drive precise antigen specific immunity and stimulate key immunomodulatory signals."

Before assuming her most recent role at Merus, Dr. Fjällskog served as Vice President of Clinical Development at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, where she played an integral role in the expanded clinical development of IPI-549. Earlier, she worked at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, where she served as a Clinical Program Leader, Translational Clinical Oncology and as the global lead for several oncology programs, including those targeting CDK4/6, BCL-2, CSF-1,PD-1 and CD73. Dr. Fjällskog is an Associate Professor of Oncology at Uppsala University, Sweden and has over twenty-five years of experience in clinical oncology, translational research, and drug development. She holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Uppsala University School of Medicine

On June 15, 2020 Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (NASDAQ: LGND) reported that Vernalis Research, a Ligand company, has expanded its oncology research collaboration with Servier, an international pharmaceutical company based in France, to jointly identify and enable new therapeutic targets (Press release, Ligand, JUN 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234561094]).

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The new three-year research collaboration combines Vernalis’ strengths in structure and biophysics-based methods as part of the Vernalis Design Platform (VDP) with the oncology expertise at Servier to enable drug discovery related to several undisclosed proteins identified as potential therapeutic targets. The agreement builds on the successful collaboration between the two companies that has led to the discovery of a number of compounds currently in clinical trials.

Vernalis will receive research and success fees, along with potential for milestone payments, and royalties on sales of any target advanced by Servier. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"This new collaboration further validates our fragment and structure-based drug discovery platform, as well as the strength and success of our relationship with Servier. We look forward to working together to develop exciting new cancer treatment opportunities that may add to the successes we’ve had in targeting Bcl-2 and Mcl-1," commented Mike Wood, Managing Director of Vernalis.

"We are extremely pleased with the progress we have made in partnership with Vernalis. This new research collaboration provides the framework to establish drug discovery against a number of therapeutic targets and further contribute to addressing important unmet needs of cancer patients," added Olivier Geneste, Director of Oncology Research at Servier.

About Vernalis Research

Based in Cambridge, UK, Vernalis Research is a world leader in fragment and structure-guided drug discovery. The Vernalis Design Platform (VDP) integrates protein structure determination and engineering, fragment screening and molecular modeling with medicinal chemistry to enable success in novel drug discovery programs against highly-challenging targets. A key element to the success of VDP is establishing a robust drug discovery platform for each target to validate hit identification using multiple proprietary assay and biophysical systems. Vernalis Research has collaborations across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, CNS, anti-infectives and inflammation, with global partners and a heritage of successful internal drug discovery in oncology and anti-infectives.

On June 15, 2020 Corcept Therapeutics Incorporated (NASDAQ: CORT), a commercial-stage company engaged in the discovery and development of drugs to treat severe metabolic, oncologic and psychiatric disorders by modulating the effects of cortisol, reported that it will present novel genomic data from patients with adrenocortical carcinoma at the 2020 American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting (Press release, Corcept Therapeutics, JUN 15, 2020, https://ir.corcept.com/news-releases/news-release-details/corcept-therapeutics-present-data-american-association-cancer [SID1234561093]). This year’s annual meeting will be held in a virtual format starting June 22. Following its presentation, a copy of our poster will be available at the Research & Pipeline / Publications tab of our website.

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"Excessive cortisol in patients with adrenal cancer causes Cushing’s syndrome and may also blunt the efficacy of immunotherapeutic agents such as checkpoint inhibitors," said Andreas Grauer, MD, Corcept’s Chief Medical Officer. "The data we are presenting informed our Phase 1b trial of our proprietary, selective cortisol modulator relacorilant in combination with the PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Merck’s drug, Keytruda) in patients with metastatic or unresectable adrenocortical cancer.1 Our trial will examine whether relacorilant can, in addition to treating Cushing’s syndrome in these patients, also help immunotherapy achieve its maximum effect, by reducing the immunosuppressive effects of excess cortisol activity."

Suppression of Tumor Immune Activity in Adrenocortical Carcinoma with Excess Glucocorticoid

Session Title: Late-Breaking Research: Clinical Research 1 / Endocrinology
Session Type: Poster session
Poster No: LB-130
Location: Virtual meeting
Presentation Available Online: Beginning June 22 (meeting registration required)
About Relacorilant

Relacorilant is a non-steroidal, selective modulator of the glucocorticoid receptor, the receptor for cortisol which is activated when cortisol levels are high. Relacorilant does not bind to the body’s other hormone receptors, including the progesterone receptor. Corcept is studying relacorilant as a potential treatment for a variety of serious disorders, including Cushing’s syndrome and advanced adrenal, ovarian and pancreatic cancer. Relacorilant is proprietary to Corcept and is protected by composition of matter and method of use patents. Relacorilant has received orphan drug designation in the United States for the treatment of Cushing’s syndrome and pancreatic cancer.

On June 15, 2020 Selecta Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: SELB), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on unlocking the full potential of biologic therapies based on its immune tolerance platform, ImmTOR, reported that Selecta’s Chief Executive Officer, Carsten Brunn, Ph.D., will present at the Raymond James 2020 Human Healthcare Innovation Conference on Thursday, June 18 at 10:20 a.m. Eastern Time (Press release, Selecta Biosciences, JUN 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234561092]).

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A live webcast and a copy of the presentation will be available on the Investors & Media section of the Selecta website at www.selectabio.com. Following the live presentation, a replay of the webcast will be available on the Company’s website for 30 days.

On June 15, 2020 Alpine Immune Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALPN), a leading clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on developing innovative treatments for cancer and autoimmune/inflammatory diseases, reported the company will present a poster at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Virtual Annual Meeting II, taking place June 22-24, 2020 (Press release, Alpine Immune Sciences, JUN 15, 2020, View Source [SID1234561091]).

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Details of the presentation are as follows:

Presentation Title: ALPN-202 combines checkpoint inhibition with conditional T cell costimulation to overcome T cell suppression by M2c macrophages and improve the durability of engineered T cell anti-tumor responses
Session Title: LBPO.IM01 – Late-Breaking Research: Immunology 1
Date: June 22, 2020, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM EDT
Presentation Location: Virtual Meeting II: E-Posters
Session Type: Virtual Poster Session
Poster Number: LB-085 / 12

A copy of the poster will also be made available in the "Scientific Publications" section of Alpine’s website at www.alpineimmunesciences.com.

About ALPN-202

ALPN-202 is a first-in-class, conditional CD28 costimulator and dual checkpoint inhibitor with the potential to improve upon the efficacy of combined checkpoint inhibition while limiting significant toxicities. Preclinical studies of ALPN-202 have successfully demonstrated superior efficacy in tumor models compared to checkpoint inhibition alone. A phase 1 trial of ALPN-202 in advanced malignancies (NEON-1, NCT04186637) is open for enrollment.