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Calidi Biotherapeutics to Present New Data on Its Lead Asset CLD-401 at the AACR Annual Meeting in April 2026

On April 2, 2026 Calidi Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American: CLDI) ("Calidi" or the "Company"), a biotechnology company pioneering the development of targeted genetic medicines, reported it will present new data at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) annual meeting in San Diego, California from April 17-22, 2026. The Company will showcase new data on CLD-401, a systemically delivered oncolytic virus that is designed to express high levels of IL-15 superagonist ("IL-15 SA") only in the tumor microenvironment ("TME"), currently in IND-enabling studies.

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CLD-401 is the lead candidate from the Company’s RedTail platform, a systemically delivered virotherapy platform designed to selectively target tumors, remodel the TME, and enable high-level expression of therapeutic genetic payloads directly within the tumor. CLD-401 is engineered to express high levels of IL-15 SA, a known T- and NK-cell activator, in the TME. Data at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) will detail the pattern of CLD-401 mediated-IL-15 SA expression and the subsequent immune changes in the TME, leading to a robust therapeutic response. The Company expects to file an IND for CLD-401 by the end of 2026.

"We continue to advance the RedTail platform and its breakthrough capabilities through our lead asset, CLD-401," said Eric Poma, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Calidi. "We expect to file an IND for CLD-401 by end of 2026 and enter the clinic shortly thereafter."

"The data we will present at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) will characterize the pharmacokinetic pattern of IL-15 SA expression and resulting changes in the TME" said Antonio F. Santidrian, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Technical Operations at Calidi. "The ability of CLD-401 to induce high levels of IL15-SA expression in the TME but not systemically may dramatically alter the therapeutic window of cytokine treatment."

The Company continues to expand the functionality of the RedTail platform and is also actively pursuing strategic partnerships to accelerate clinical development and broaden the impact of its RedTail platform.

(Press release, Calidi Biotherapeutics, APR 2, 2026, View Source [SID1234664146])

Imfinzi plus Imjudo combined with lenvatinib and TACE demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival in embolisation-eligible unresectable liver cancer in EMERALD-3 Phase III trial

On April 2, 2026 AstraZeneca reported that positive high-level results from the EMERALD-3 Phase III trial showed Imfinzi (durvalumab) in combination with Imjudo (tremelimumab), lenvatinib and transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) demonstrating a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in the primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) versus TACE alone for patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) eligible for embolisation.

At this interim analysis for overall survival (OS), a key secondary endpoint, this combination also demonstrated a trend toward OS improvement versus TACE alone.

Patients in the investigational arms were treated with the STRIDE regimen (Single Tremelimumab Regular Interval Durvalumab), with or without lenvatinib, before TACE, and then alongside TACE.

Although not formally tested at this time, data for the treatment arm evaluating the STRIDE regimen plus TACE versus TACE alone showed strong trends toward improved PFS and OS. The trial will continue to follow OS and other key secondary endpoints in both investigational arms.

HCC is the most common type of liver cancer.1 In 2026, more than 200,000 patients with HCC will be eligible for embolisation, a standard-of-care procedure that blocks the blood supply to the tumour and can also deliver chemotherapy directly to the liver.2-4 However, most patients who receive embolisation experience disease progression or recurrence within six to ten months.5

Ghassan Abou-Alfa, MD, JD, MBA, PhD(hc), Attending Physician, Professor of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and principal investigator in the trial said, "Dual immunotherapy with durvalumab and tremelimumab in the STRIDE regimen represents a meaningful advance for patients with embolisation-eligible liver cancer, who currently lack systemic treatment options to keep their cancer from progressing or recurring, with a trend of improving survival. EMERALD‑3 shows we can now significantly reduce the risk of disease progression with STRIDE as the immunotherapy backbone alongside lenvatinib and TACE."

Susan Galbraith, Executive Vice President, Oncology Haematology R&D, AstraZeneca, said: "EMERALD‑3 now shows that bringing the dual immunotherapy STRIDE regimen earlier, alongside TACE and lenvatinib, can further improve outcomes in earlier‑stage liver cancer. This builds on the HIMALAYA Phase III trial data in patients with advanced, unresectable disease, where the STRIDE regimen has already demonstrated durable overall survival benefit. We are discussing these positive data with global regulatory authorities while awaiting the final results from the key secondary endpoints."

The safety profile for each combination was consistent with the known profiles of each medicine, and there were no new safety findings.

These data will be presented at a forthcoming medical meeting and shared with global regulatory authorities.

(Press release, AstraZeneca, APR 2, 2026, View Source [SID1234664130])

INOVIO Announces Proposed Public Offering

On April 1, 2026 INOVIO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: INO), a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing DNA medicines to help treat and protect people from HPV-related diseases, cancer, and infectious diseases, reported that it intends to offer and sell shares of its common stock and accompanying Series A warrants and Series B warrants to purchase shares of its common stock (or pre-funded warrants to purchase its common stock in lieu thereof), in an underwritten public offering. All of the securities in the proposed offering will be sold by INOVIO. INOVIO intends to grant the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase additional shares of its common stock and/or accompanying Series A and Series B warrants to purchase shares of its common stock in an amount up to 15% of the securities offered in the public offering under the same terms and conditions. The proposed offering is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or the actual size or terms of the offering.

Piper Sandler is acting as sole manager for the offering.

A shelf registration statement relating to the shares of common stock and accompanying Series A and Series B warrants offered in the offering described above was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on November 9, 2023 and declared effective by the SEC on January 31, 2024. The offering will be made only by means of a written prospectus and prospectus supplement that form a part of the registration statement. A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the proposed offering will be filed with the SEC and will be available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus, when available, may also be obtained by contacting: Piper Sandler & Co., 350 North 5th Street, Suite 1000, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401, Attention: Prospectus Department, by telephone at (800) 747-3924, or by e-mail at [email protected].

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities being offered, nor shall there be any sale of the securities being offered in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

(Press release, Inovio, APR 2, 2026, View Source [SID1234664124])

OneMedNet, Onco-Innovations and Inka Health Announces Collaboration Aimed to Accelerate Potential for Oncology Drug Development Using Real-World Data and AI

On April 1, 2026 OneMedNet Corporation (Nasdaq: ONMD) (the "OneMedNet," the "Company," "we," "us" or "our"), a leading provider of regulatory decision-grade, AI-ready Real-World Data (RWD), reported that Inka Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Onco-Innovations Limited (CBOE CA: ONCO) (OTCQB: ONNVF) (Frankfurt: W1H, WKN: A3EKSZ) has entered into a collaboration with OneMedNet Inc., under which Onco-Innovations and Inka Health will have access to OneMedNet’s iRWD platform— powered by Palantir (PLTR) Foundry— providing it access to U.S. real-world oncology data. The agreement is intended to accelerate development timelines, reduce clinical and regulatory risk, and strengthen evidence generation for Onco-Innovations’ proprietary PNKP Inhibitor Technology targeting PTEN/SHP1-deficient cancers.

Under the agreement, Inka Health is gaining access to OneMedNet’s iRWD platform through a selective pilot program following technical evaluation and qualification. The collaboration will initially focus on applying real-world data and advanced analytics to support Onco’s PNKP Inhibitor Technology’s development strategy, including patient responder identification, indication expansion beyond advanced metastatic colorectal cancer, and complementary evidence generation to inform clinical and regulatory decision-making. Inka Health also intends to use OneMedNet’s iRWD platform to improve and further develop the core model of SynoGraph, its causal-inference based AI platform that aims to predict the success and safety of potential new cancer treatments by analyzing multimodal medical data.

Importantly, this engagement reflects the original architectural intent of the iRWD platform: to enable rapid identification and characterization of rare and molecularly defined patient populations at scale. By combining multi-modal data, longitudinal clinical context, and AI-augmented search capabilities, the platform is purpose-built to locate hard-to-find cohorts, —such as PTEN/SHP1-deficient tumors—, and accelerate innovation in areas where traditional trial recruitment and evidence development can be challenging.

"This collaboration demonstrates exactly what our iRWD platform was designed to do—find and characterize rare, high-value patient populations to accelerate innovation," said Aaron Green, CEO & President of OneMedNet. "By bringing together regulatory-grade real-world data, multi-modal clinical depth, and Palantir-powered AI, we can help oncology innovators de-risk development, move faster, and generate meaningful evidence in complex disease segments."

"Access to high-quality U.S. oncology real-world data is a critical enabler for PNKP Inhibitor Technology," said Thomas O’Shaunghnessy, CEO of Onco-Innovations. "This collaboration allows us to better understand real-world patient populations with PTEN/SHP1-deficient tumors, identify potential responders, and explore additional indications—, helping us de-risk development while improving capital efficiency for shareholders."

(Press release, Onco-Innovations, APR 1, 2026, View Source [SID1234664144])

Senti Biosciences Announces Publication in Cell Systems Demonstrating Advanced Logic-Gated CAR Design for Cell Therapies

On April 1, 2026 Senti Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNTI) ("Senti Bio"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation cell and gene therapies using its proprietary Gene Circuit platform, reported the publication of new peer-reviewed research in Cell Systems demonstrating its systematic framework for engineering NOT-gated chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) circuits in both T cells and natural killer (NK) cells. The study demonstrates how Logic-Gated receptor designs can significantly improve the efficacy, precision, and safety of cell therapies by enabling immune cells to selectively eliminate tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue. This foundational paper complements Senti’s recent announcements on positive clinical data with its Logic-Gated SENTI-202 product in the treatment of relapsed/refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia presented at the 2025 American Society for Hematology Annual Meeting.

The paper, titled "NOT-gated Chimeric Antigen Receptor Circuits in T and NK Cells," presents a comprehensive evaluation of dual-receptor CAR circuits that integrate an activating CAR (for cancer killing) with an inhibitory CAR (for healthy cell protection). By quantitatively analyzing more than 60 CAR circuit designs, the study defines core design principles that govern activation strength, inhibition dynamics, antigen dose response and functional durability across immune cell types.

"This study highlights the power of synthetic biology to introduce decision-making into living medicines," said Tim Lu, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Senti Biosciences. "By systematically dissecting the interaction between activating and inhibitory CARs, we provide a roadmap for building immune cells that are both effective and precise."

The study identifies inhibitory CARs based on the LIR1 receptor as particularly potent regulators of immune cell activity, outperforming several canonical immune checkpoint receptors. In T cells, optimized NOT-gated CAR circuits not only improved discrimination between tumor and healthy cells but also reduced markers of cellular exhaustion and preserved cytotoxic killing of cancer cells following repeated antigen exposure. These findings suggest that inhibitory CAR signaling can provide benefits beyond target specificity, potentially improving the durability of therapeutic responses.

"These results show that inhibitory CARs have very interesting and underappreciated properties that can improve the performance of immune cell therapies," said Wilson Wong, Ph.D., Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, and Scientific Co-Founder of Senti.

Importantly, the authors demonstrate that many NOT-gated CAR designs exhibited high performance in both T cells and NK cells. In an in vivo mixed-cell xenograft model, NOT-gated CAR T cells and CAR NK cells selectively eliminated tumor cells while sparing off-tumor cells expressing protective antigens. These results highlight the portability of logic-gated CAR circuits across ex vivo and in vivo CAR modalities, and their potential to treat cancers where clean tumor-specific targets are unavailable.

The findings further support the applicability of Senti Biosciences’ Gene Circuit platform to cell and gene therapy, which is designed to program cells with logic-based control over therapeutic activities. NOT-gated CAR circuits represent a foundational approach for enhancing safety and expanding the therapeutic window of engineered immune cells in cancer and other diseases. A patent application has been filed covering aspects of the technology described in the study.

The full article is now available online in Cell Systems.

(Press release, Senti Biosciences, APR 1, 2026, View Source [SID1234664143])