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Zai Lab to develop and exclusively commercialize REGN1979 in oncology in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau
"Zai Lab is an ideal collaborator for us, with an established and respected track record that aligns with our mission to use the power of science to repeatedly bring new medicines to patients with serious diseases," said Israel Lowy, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical and Translational Sciences for Oncology at Regeneron. "Zai's support will not only help bolster enrollment into global REGN1979 trials, but will also enable this promising investigational medicine to reach patients faster in this key region, if approved."
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T-cure Bioscience and NCI to develop T cell receptor therapy for treatment of solid tumors
“We are extremely excited to work with Dr. Hinrichs and his team at NCI to advance this novel TCR product candidate through preclinical and clinical development,” stated Gang Zeng, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of T-Cure. “Dr. Hinrichs’ extensive experience in the discovery and development of novel adoptive T-cell therapies for cancer will be invaluable as we advance this program. Of note, the TCR was isolated from the tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes of a patient who had a complete response to an immunotherapy without any toxicities. As a result, we believe it holds great promise for engineering patients’ immune cells to effectively target and destroy cancer cells without harming healthy tissue.”
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Gilead collaborates with Second Genome for microbiome-based solutions to drug development for inflammatory diseases
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Gilead; HQ Foster City, CA) has inked a potential $1.5 billion deal with Second Genome, Inc. (Second Genome; San Francisco, CA) on April 6th 2020. Second Genome, a clinical-stage company, will be working towards finding microbiome-based biomarkers and drug candidates to inflammatory diseases like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and fibrosis. “There is a growing body of evidence that the microbiome plays an important role in disease progression and treatment response in inflammatory diseases,” said William Lee, PhD, Executive Vice President of Research, Gilead Sciences.
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Pandion Therapeutics raises $80 million in series B funding for bispecific antibodies to immune system disorders
Pandion Therapeutics (Pandion, Boston MA) is a start-up making bispecific antibodies to cure autoimmune disorders. Pandion has technological platforms that can create combinations for the effector and tether modules, taking into account the stoichiometry and geometry for good arrow head binding and functional screens for tissue specific tether.
Pandion is collaborating with Astellas for developing pancreas specific tissue tethers, for autoimmune type-1 diabetes. The company is further looking to expand its disease portfolio to inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune liver and skin diseases. For these plans, Pandion has raised $80 million in series B funding (1st April 2020) from investors including Access Biotechnology, Boxer Capital, RA capital and OrbiMed.
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OraSure Technologies bags BARDA funding to develop in-home rapid detection test kit for COVID-19
Orasure Technologies (OraSure; BETHLEHEM, Pa) has received funding of $710,310 from U.S. federal government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) for fast tracking its in-house rapid detection system for SARS-CoV2. The announcement was made on 6th April 2020. The in-house self-test kit is based on oral fluid sample collection; and detects antigens of SARS-CoV2 and other coronaviruses which could cause severe respiratory disease such as the strain of the 2000 SARS outbreak. The stick test takes 20 minutes to produce results that would show 2 bands (control and test) in case of positive infection, akin to the readout of standard over the counter pregnancy tests. The goal envisioned by OraSure and BARDA is for asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV2 to be able to easily and painlessly detect their carrier status so as to enable quarantine and follow up measures. The company anticipates rolling out the tests to scale in 4 to 6 months’ time.
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