On July 16, 2019 GEMoaB GmbH, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, manufacture and commercialization of next-generation immunotherapies for difficult-to-treat cancers, reported the appointment of Michael Pehl to the CEO with effect from 1 July 2019 (Press release, GEMoaB Monoclonals, JUL 16, 2019, View Source [SID1234537560]). This move reflects GEMoaB’s strategy of positioning itself as a fully integrated biotech company over the long term. GEMoaB relies on its strong scientific expertise as well as its solid foundation in research and development.

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"We are pleased that with Michael Pehl, an experienced leader in the field of oncology GEMoaB will be heading into the next phase of growth. Under his leadership, GEMoaB will further develop its proprietary immunotherapy platforms in clinical trials. These include the Affinity-Tailored Adapters for T-Cells (ATAC), such as GEM333 and GEM3PSCA, and cellular immunotherapy (UniCAR / RevCAR). This can significantly improve the prognosis of patients with intractable hematological and solid tumors, "said Professor Dr. Gerhard Ehninger , founder and co-owner of the company." I know Michael Pehlfor many years. He has a strong scientific background, immense experience and is well positioned to lead and develop GEMoaB with its exceptional people, broad pipeline and partnerships. "

Michael Pehl has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the international biotech industry and in oncology in the US and Europe. Prior to joining GEMoaB, as Chief Executive Officer of Immunomedics Inc., he led the implementation of the clinical development plan and regulatory filing for the core product sacituzumab-govetecan for the treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Previously, Michael Pehl was President of Oncology at Celgene, responsible for the Company’s global commercial and clinical development, medical strategy and operational implementation. During this time, he was instrumental in expanding the pipeline and steadily growing global business volume. His responsibility included the clinical development program, and the introduction of drugs such as lenalidomide (Revlimid ), pomalidomide (Pomalyst ; Imnovid ) and Enasidenib (IDHIFA ) for the treatment of hematological malignancies, nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane ) in solid tumors as well as luspatercept in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and beta-thalassemia.

Prior to that, Michael Pehl held senior positions at Celgene as Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Strategy; Head of Global Marketing; Head of Hematology Europe; Vice President Central and Eastern Europe & Middle East and General Manager Germany .

His biotechnology career began at AMGEN, where he held leadership positions at the German and European levels in oncology and nephrology.

"I am grateful that I have been given the opportunity to lead GEMoaB and work with its excellent team at an exciting time for the company," said Michael Pehl, "with its highly differentiated next-generation immunotherapy platforms and its promising preclinical and GEMoaB’s goal is to make GEMoaB, together with our partners and potential investors, a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company that will help improve the cancer outcomes of cancer patients in indications for which there are currently There are far too few treatment options. "

About the Affinity-Tailored Adapter for T-Cells (ATAC) Platform

The GEMoaB-owned platform of the ‘Affinity-Tailored Adapter for T-Cells’ is due to a high binding affinity for tumor antigens and a lower affinity for the CD3 antigen on the
T-effector cells are characterized, which in preclinical models, the auto-activation of T cells is avoided. In addition, the safety and tolerability of the therapy may be improved by the relatively short serum half-life of only 60 minutes. Using fully humanized antibodies reduces the potential immunogenicity risk even with continuous treatment. The first two compounds from the ATAC platform in clinical trials are GEM333 and GEM3PSCA. GEM333 is an ATAC with specific binding to CD3 and CD33 and is currently in clinical development for the treatment of CD33-positive relapsed / refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). (For more information, see View Source). GEM3PSCA is an ATAC with specific binding to CD3 and the PSCA antigen.

About UniCAR / RevCAR

To avoid possible therapy-related toxicities as well as limitations in the efficacy and production of current CAR-T therapies, GEMoaB GmbH has developed universal and modular CAR technologies called UniCAR and RevCAR. These genetically modified T cells can be repeatedly turned on and off by administering a so-called targeting module ("TM") .TMs are bispecific molecules against various antigens that bind UniCAR / RevCAR T cells to the malignant target cells After elimination of the corresponding TM, the UniCAR / RevCAR T cells switch off automatically.

On July 16, 2019 ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. ("ImmunoCellular") (OTC: IMUC), reported an agreement with a privately held biotechnology company (the "Purchaser") for the purchase of substantially all of ImmunoCellular’s remaining clinical and pre-clinical assets, including its preclinical and clinical programs, technology, intellectual property and know-how (Press release, ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, JUL 16, 2019, View Source [SID1234537559]). ImmunoCellular’s therapeutic assets are comprised of ICT-107 (phase 3-ready for glioblastoma), ICT-121 (phase 1 completed for recurrent glioblastoma) and ICT-140 (phase 1/2-ready for ovarian cancer), each of which is a patient-specific dendritic cell-based immunotherapy targeting solid tumors. Preclinical assets include the Stem-to-T-Cell research program, which engineers hematopoietic stem cells to generate cytotoxic T cells.

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The aggregate purchase price of the assets is $1,000,000, payable by the Purchaser in two payments. The first upfront payment of $500,000 was received by ImmunoCellular upon closing of the agreement on May 8, 2019, and is non-refundable. The second, or continuation, payment of $500,000 is dependent upon the outcome of certain anticipated discussions between the Purchaser and the US Food and Drug Administration concerning the review and development of clinical asset ICT-107. The timing of these planned discussions is as of yet undetermined, but is anticipated to be within 120 days from the closing. If the continuing payment is not received by ImmunoCellular, the ownership of all assets purchased by the Purchaser from ImmunoCellular will revert back to ImmunoCellular.

The purchase agreement represents the culmination of a key strategy undertaken by ImmunoCellular in 2018 to explore strategic alternatives, following the decision by the Board to discontinue development of its clinical assets, ICT-107, ICT-121 and ICT-140, and to discontinue its research-stage Stem-to-T-Cell program, due to insufficient resources. Since 2018, the Company has been actively engaged in a broad range of conversations with potential strategic partners to explore strategic alternatives, including a potential merger, consolidation, reorganization or other business combination, as well as the sale of the Company or the Company’s assets.

Having concluded that the options for continuing operations were limited, a sale of company assets was determined to be a responsible strategy for enhancing shareholder value. The Company plans to continue the process of exploring additional strategic alternatives, including the potential to establish a reverse merger with a private company seeking an expedited route to the public markets, and welcomes inquiries by parties interested in such a potential collaboration. As of May 31, 2019 ImmunoCellular’s liquidity and capital resources remain intact, with cash of $1.7 million and no debt other than small payables related to its limited operations. The Company cannot guarantee that any actions will be taken as a direct result of its continuing pursuit of additional strategic alternatives.

On July 16, 2019 Horizon Technology Finance Corporation (NASDAQ: HRZN) ("Horizon") (the "Company"), a leading specialty finance company that provides capital in the form of secured loans to venture capital backed companies in the technology, life science, healthcare information and services, and cleantech industries, reported that it plans to release financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2019 on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, after the close of market trading (Press release, Horizon Technology, JUL 16, 2019, View Source [SID1234537558]).

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The Company has scheduled a conference call to discuss the results on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, at 9:00 a.m. ET. The conference call will feature remarks by Robert D. Pomeroy, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Gerald A. Michaud, President, and Daniel R. Trolio, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. To participate in the call, please dial (877) 407-9716 (domestic) or (201) 493-6779 (international). The conference ID is 13692493. Please dial into the call at least five minutes before the scheduled start time.

The conference call will also be available via a live listen-only webcast on the Company’s website, www.horizontechfinance.com. Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the site and download any necessary software that may be needed to listen to the Internet broadcast.

For interested individuals unable to join the live conference call, a replay of the call will be available through August 1, 2019 at (844) 512-2921 (domestic) or (412) 317-6671 (international). The conference ID is 13692493. An online archive of the webcast will be available on the Company’s website for 30 days following the call.

On July 16, 2019 Penumbra, Inc. (NYSE: PEN) reported that it will host a conference call to discuss financial results for the second quarter 2019 after market close on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 at 4:30 PM Eastern Time (Press release, Penumbra, JUL 16, 2019, View Source [SID1234537557]). A press release with second quarter 2019 financial results will be issued after market close that day.

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Webcast & Conference Call Information
The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing (866) 393-4306 for domestic callers or (734) 385-2616 for international callers (conference id: 9790865), or the webcast can be accessed on the "Events" section under the "Investors" tab of the Company’s website at: www.penumbrainc.com. The webcast will be available on the Company’s website for at least two weeks following the completion of the call.

On July 16, 2019 Cyclica, a Toronto-based biotechnology company leveraging AI and computational biophysics for drug discovery, and Professor Igor Stagljar from the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, Department of Biochemistry & Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto, reported a collaboration to optimize lead compounds and de novo design of novel compounds in an effort to advance precision medicine with the next-generation EGFR-inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Press release, Cyclica, JUL 16, 2019, View Source [SID1234537555]). The Stagljar Lab is located in the Donnelly Centre, a cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research institute in the heart of Toronto’s research district.

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NSCLC makes up approximately 85% of lung cancers. Evolved drug resistance has been a key challenge for treating NSCLC due to EGFR mutations, which are present in roughly 17% of people with lung cancer in the United States. The prevalence of these mutations increase to 50% in people of Eastern Asian descent, and are more common in women than men. Additional research in treating NSCLC is critical to developing effective precision medicines that can target the evolving nature of this disease.

MatchMaker, Cyclica’s proprietary deep learning protein-ligand binding technology, will be used to batch deconvolute a shortlist of shared targets among a group of promising lead compounds identified at the Stagljar Lab using their proprietary MaMTH-Drug Screening (MaMTH-DS) assay to drive new mechanistic insights of such a disease. Ligand Design, Cyclica’s multi-targeted and multi-objective drug design platform, will then create structural variants of the existing lead compounds, and computationally design novel compounds that have the preferred polypharmacological, pharmacokinetic, and physicochemical properties. Recently, Nature Medicine online published an article featuring Cyclica’s drug discovery platforms, and highlighted the value of designing multi-targeted drugs for oncology. The Stagljar Lab will synthesize selected the novel compounds, and conduct downstream validation through its proprietary set of assays for further research and commercialization opportunities. All IP generated from this project related to the compounds will be shared equally by Cyclica and the University of Toronto.

"We are thrilled to be working with the world class Stagljar Lab to leverage our drug discovery platform to progress our shared interests in creating novel advanced lead compounds for non-small cell lung cancer," says Naheed Kurji, President & CEO, Cyclica. "This project is an example of the growing integration between science and industry focused on commercialization, and a testament to the hyper innovative work being done in our own backyard at the University of Toronto."

"We are extremely pleased to be working with Cyclica since our collaboration represents a unique approach that unites two completely novel and complementary approaches, Cyclica’s artificial intelligence MatchMaker and our MaMTH-DS live-cell drug discovery assay, for the rapid identification and validation of novel EGFR inhibitors in NSCLC. I’m positive that our joint efforts will accelerate our ability to build novel EGFR inhibitors with these cutting-edge technologies and will thus speed up their implementation in the clinics," says Dr. Igor Stagljar, University of Toronto.

Cyclica is a Toronto-based, globally recognized biotechnology company that leverages AI and computational biophysics to reshape drug discovery. Cyclica provides the pharmaceutical industry with Ligand Express and Ligand Design, an integrated, holistic, and end-to-end enabling platform focused on polypharmacology. Ligand Design and Ligand Express augment how scientists design advanced lead like molecules that minimize off-target effects, and gain insights into structural pharmacogenomics. By doing more with artificial intelligence, Cyclica aims to revolutionize a system troubled with attrition and costly failures, accelerate the drug discovery process, and develop medicines with greater precision.

The Stagljar Lab at the University of Toronto is focused on protein-protein interactions (PPIs), with a particular interest in disease progression due to altered signalling pathways. They examine how proteins involved in these signalling pathways interact with each other, and try to understand how impaired PPIs lead to numerous human diseases such as lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, brain cancer and aging. In close collaboration with medicinal chemists and clinical investigators, the Stagljar lab investigates the molecular mechanisms behind challenging, unexplained observations on drugs and on pathological events.

The Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research is an interdisciplinary research institute at the University of Toronto in which scientists make fundamental discoveries in biology to improve health. Founded in 2005, the Centre is globally recognized as a leading biomedical research hub thanks to our researchers’ landmark discoveries in genetics, stem cell biology and the molecular basis of disease, as well as state-of-the-art tools in large-scale data analysis. As well as making discoveries, our researchers also strive to translate their findings into tangible advances in medicine to help patients.