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Laverock Therapeutics secures Innovate UK award to advance immune effector cell therapeutics programme using GEiGS® technology

On October 30, 2023 Laverock Therapeutics, developer of a unique gene silencing platform for the creation of programmable advanced therapies, reported that it has been awarded £1m in funding, made up of a £700k grant from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, and co-funded by Innovate UK cancer therapeutics programme via their investor partnership programme, with UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) acting as the investor partner. The award will enable Laverock to progress its immune effector cell therapeutic programme aiming to combat hard-to-treat cancers, via use of its gene editing induced gene silencing (GEiGS) technology.

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The Innovate UK and UKI2S funded project will provide access to patient derived, highly disease relevant experimental tools. This will aid preclinical evaluation and the generation of key data in support of Laverock’s programmable macrophage and T-cell programmes developed using its unique GEiGS technology. This will facilitate informed decision making on the selection of future oncology therapeutic candidates.

Support from Innovate UK and UKI2S will also allow Laverock to strengthen internal capabilities in immune oncology by building an oncology focused team and facilitating collaboration with leading centres of excellence. These collaborations will focus on patients’ needs and enable the development of more targeted therapeutic products for the communities that will benefit.

Tim Allsopp, Chief Technology Officer of Laverock Therapeutics, said, ‘We’re tremendously excited by this achievement and the public-private endorsement of our technology that Innovate co-funding provides. We’d like to thank Innovate UK and UKI2S for their support and look forward to integrating our novel gene silencing GEiGS platform into more effective therapeutic designs for the benefit of the global cancer patient community.’

Oliver Sexton, UKI2S Investment Director, added, ‘UKI2S is delighted to invest alongside Innovate UK as a member of the Investor Partnerships scheme. As an investor, Innovate UK’s support for additional programmes provides a powerful tool to accelerate development and de-risk investment. Innovate UK and UKI2S’s equity is helping Laverock add to its pipeline of ground-breaking therapies.’

This award follows the company’s recent expansion of its seed funding round to £13.5m.

(Press release, Laverock Therapeutics, OCT 30, 2023, View Source [SID1234668714])

Kaiyue Biopharma’s independently developed small molecule new drug targeting RNA helicase has obtained clinical trial approval (IND) from the US FDA

On October 30, 2023 Shenzhen Kaiyue Life Science Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Kaiyue Life"), a world-first RNA helicase drug target, has developed the first-in-class (FIC) drug with independent intellectual property rights worldwide for a wide spectrum of solid tumors, reported the first milestone event in drug development: obtaining clinical trial approval from the US FDA, achieving a leap from zero to one (Press release, KeYe Life Technologies, OCT 30, 2023, View Source;article_id=78 [SID1234644609]).

Based on more than ten years of basic research, Kaiyue Life has developed a unique target for special RNA helicase proteins as cancer treatment, which is internationally leading and original, and is classified as a Class 1.1 original new drug. This is an original drug target developed by us. It took ten years from the start of basic research to target confirmation, and two and a half years from PCC to IND approval.

Kaiyue Life has been deeply involved in the field of RNA helicase and is a pioneer in the field of RNA helicase research and development. The founder of the team has been engaged in helicase research since 2008 and has published dozens of high-level scientific research papers to date.

RNA helicase plays an important role in the gene expression process of eukaryotes. Its functions involve embryonic development, cell proliferation, hematopoiesis, metabolism, cancer, immune regulation, inflammatory response and autoimmune diseases. Their disorders can cause a variety of human diseases, such as cancer, viral infection, inflammation, etc. Some DEAD/H box proteins are considered to be therapeutic targets for diseases. For example, inhibitors of eIF4A and DDX3X are currently being developed as new targeted drugs for the treatment of human cancer. In view of the close correlation between RNA helicase and human diseases, several helicase inhibitors have entered clinical research as drugs for indications such as tumors and antivirals.

Dr. Zhang Yandong, founder of Kaiyue Life, said: Drug research and development in the field of RNA helicase is in the ascendant.

2023 Third quarterly report

On October 30, 2023 Fosun Pharma reported its 2023 Third quarterly report (Filing, 3 mnth, SEP 30, Fosun Pharma, 2023, OCT 30, 2023, View Source [SID1234639227]).

Consolidated Financial Results for the six months ended September 30, 2023

On October 30, 2023 NEC reported its consolidated Financial Results for the six months ended September 30, 2023 (Press release, NEC, OCT 30, 2023, https://pdf.irpocket.com/C8793/MH4b/MZCP/o67J.pdf [SID1234639212]).

Institute for Systems Biology and NED Biosystems announce collaboration to show how cancer’s onset may be reversed

On October 31, 2023 Leroy Hood, MD, PhD, co-founder of Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) and a pioneer in systems biology, and Rebecca Lambert, founder and CEO of NED Biosystems, Inc. (NED), a public benefit corporation that is developing the first oral "systems treatment" for cancer, reported to have entered into a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on a clinical trial to show how cancer’s onset may be reversed (Press release, NED Biosystems, OCT 30, 2023, View Source [SID1234636544]).

NED’s cancer treatment, NED-170, takes a systems approach that combines repurposed, oral agents that are well documented in humans to affect critical cancer disease-driver processes at doses that lack customary toxicity and side effects.

"A systems biology approach is paramount – NED-170 is the multi-pronged treatment required to subvert cancer’s complex system," said Hood, who is inventor of the DNA Sequencer, technology which enabled the Human Genome Project.

The collaborative trial’s objective is to gather intelligence through a multi-dimensional monitoring of the tissue in which a tumor grows. A simple blood test utilizes the latest ultra-sensitive hyper-personalized proteomics technologies to measure the traces of more than 3,000 distinct proteins at once that reveal many processes in the tumor tissue, thereby offering an assessment of the specific efficacy of the individual agents in the multi-pronged approach.

NED-170’s Phase 1b/2 clinical trial is designed to treat patients concomitant to standard of care who lack an option for targeted therapy based on tumor genome sequencing in three indications representing large unmet needs: cholangiocarcinoma, triple negative breast cancer, and ovarian cancer.

NED is initially targeting the 50 percent to 80 percent of cancer patients whose tumors do not carry mutations for targeted therapy. Based on observational data, NED believes its systems treatment, when combined with standard of care therapies, may afford patients extended survival and enhanced quality of life. The data collected from NED’s initial trial and follow-on clinical trials will serve to develop a database for ISB’s large study utilizing proteomics and NED-170 to optimize the systems approach for suppression of cancer progression based on the driver processes in subclasses of patients.

"A truly comprehensive approach to a complex adaptive system like cancer, as the war on global terror has taught us, must be a multi-pronged approach that moderates, without adding stress, the various behaviors that promote cancer and allows the tissue to re-establish the balance of a normal cell community," said Sui Huang, MD, PhD, and ISB professor, cancer cell dynamics expert, and NED Biosystems Systems Advocate.

The envisioned high-dimensional profiling of a patient’s blood biochemistry baseline can inform doctors about how the tumor bed is preparing a tiny tumor for outgrowth before a tumor is clinically detectable, which can be different in different patients. It can also tell us precisely which biological processes a particular tumor relies on most to (re)grow in a given patient. Uncommon quality of life improvements (and cost savings) may be achieved when a cancer patient is treated with evidence-based agents efficacious against key pathways at doses that lack toxicity and side effects.

"By moderating multiple cancer progressing pathways and cancer stem cells at once, NED-170 affords a comprehensive systems approach never before available to cancer patients," said Lambert. "The comprehensive blood profiling utilized to measure NED-170’s impact on pathways advances a personalized measurement of each patient’s unique cancer signature."