News and Trends 20 Jun 2018 Massive Series B Funding Could Bring Belgian Immuno-oncology Treatments Into the Clinic iTeos Therapeutics raised €65M ($75M) to bring two of its cancer treatments into the clinic within the next one and a half years. iTeos Therapeutics, a Belgian biotech, raised what may have been the largest Series B financing round in Europe so far this year, led by MPM Capital. The funding will be used to […] June 20, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Alexander Burik Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 28 May 2018 Genmab and Janssen Suffer Combination Therapy Setback Janssen will discontinue a Phase I study testing Danish biotech Genmab’s blood cancer blockbuster daratumumab combined with a candidate checkpoint inhibitor in patients with multiple myeloma. Janssen, which obtained the exclusive global rights to commercialize daratumumab from Genmab in 2012, will also discontinue a Phase Ib/II study of daratumumab in patients with non-small cell lung […] May 28, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Alexander Burik Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 5 Apr 2018 Boehringer Offers €1Bn for New Checkpoint Inhibitor from a French Biotech OSE Immunotherapeutics could receive up to €1.1Bn from its new partner Boehringer Ingelheim, which has set its eyes on a new type of checkpoint inhibitor being developed by the French biotech. OSE Immunotherapeutics has entered a global license and collaboration deal with Boehringer Ingelheim for the development of OSE-172, a checkpoint inhibitor antibody to treat […] April 5, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 13 Mar 2018 Danish Biotech Collaborates With US Merck on Combination Therapy for Lung Cancer IO Biotech will test its immune modulator in combination with Merck’s checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda, known for curing former US President Jimmy Carter’s cancer. IO Biotech, based in Copenhagen, has entered an agreement with Merck (the US one) to enter a Phase I/II trial for treating lung cancer with IO’s immune modulator, IO102, and Merck’s checkpoint […] March 13, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Alexander Burik Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 1 Mar 2018 Could This Parisian Biotech Startup’s Cancer Treatment Compete With Merck and Novartis? Stimunity, a Parisian biotech, secured a 2M€ seed investment to develop a cancer treatment that could compete with that of big players such as Merck and Novartis. Stimunity is a preclinical-stage startup company which develops drugs targeting a new cell signalling pathway to treat cancer. The company secured funding from Portage, a US-Canadian firm that […] March 1, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Alexander Burik Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 21 Feb 2018 FDA Approves AstraZeneca’s Lung Cancer Treatment after Rejecting Merck and Pfizer’s The FDA approval will give AstraZeneca a competitive advantage in the lung cancer treatment market over Merck KGaA & Pfizer, who received rejections for a similar treatment. AstraZeneca received FDA approval for Imfinzi in non-small cell lung cancer one day after Merck KgA and Pfizer received a rejection for competitor drug Bavencio in the same indication. Imfinzi (durvalumab) […] February 21, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Alexander Burik Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Interview 14 Feb 2018 This Biotech Veteran Is Using These Tips for Successful Drug Development, Here Is Why Our second interview at Refresh in Vienna was with Peter Llewellyn-Davies, the founder of Accellerate Partners and Apeiron’s CFO and CBO. He told us how he found himself at the biotech and shared the lessons he learned on his way there. Peter Llewellyn-Davies founded Accellerate Partners in 2012, which offers services including corporate expansion, funding […] February 14, 2018 - 5 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 6 Feb 2018 Spring Cleaning: AstraZeneca Ditches Underperforming Asthma and Cancer Candidates AstraZeneca has given up on the development of its PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor drug, which was the headline act when its subsidiary MedImmune acquired Amplimmune in 2013. There was no sentiment as pharma giant AstraZeneca cut a number of drugs from its pipeline after they did not perform as expected during clinical trials. The biggest name to get […] February 6, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 30 Jan 2018 Two Biotechs Team Up to Test their Cancer Antibody Combo in the Clinic Innate Pharma and MedImmune will test the combination of Innate’s cancer antibody and the checkpoint inhibitor durvalumab in patients with solid tumors. Innate Pharma uses antibodies to enhance the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. It has formed a clinical trial collaboration with the MedImmune, an R&D arm of AstraZeneca. The two companies will share the costs […] January 30, 2018 - 3 minutesmins - By Alex Dale Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
Infographics 10 Jan 2018 Infographic: All You Need to Know About Checkpoint Inhibitors Everything you need to know about what checkpoint inhibitors are and why they have caused a wave of hype for cancer immunotherapies. Since the approval of the first PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, Keytruda, in 2014, there has been an explosion of the numbers of trials testing these drugs, both alone and in combination. The latest figure, […] January 10, 2018 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 18 Dec 2017 Dutch and US Biotechs Team Up Against HPV-related Cancer ISA Pharmaceuticals will work together with Regeneron to combine its immunotherapy against cancer induced by HPV infection with its partner’s PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor. The human papillomavirus (HPV) is known for its ability to cause cancer, including cervical and head and neck cancer. Based in Leiden, the Netherlands, ISA Pharmaceuticals’ target choice is type 16 HPV, which […] December 18, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email
News and Trends 29 Nov 2017 Merck and Pfizer’s Checkpoint Inhibitor Fails to Treat Gastric Cancer Avelumab, marketed as Bavencio by Pfizer and Merck, has failed to show better efficacy than chemotherapy in a Phase III trial with gastric cancer patients. Merck (the German one) and Pfizer joined the checkpoint inhibitor club earlier this year with the approval of Bavencio (avelumab) in both the US and Europe. Looking to keep expanding the […] November 29, 2017 - 2 minutesmins - By Clara Rodríguez Fernández Share WhatsApp Twitter Linkedin Email