Biotech Strategy Blog

Commentary on Science, Innovation & New Products with a focus on Oncology, Hematology & Cancer Immunotherapy

What’s emerging next from the AACR box?

Synthetic lethality has always seemed a great idea on paper, yet the very nature of tumour complexity has frequently hampered our efforts to make the most of the scientific premise.

There’s a new kid on the block now with an altogether much clearer proposition on offer.

There are also several of these compounds already in the clinic with a raft of others pursuing them in preclinical development.

What’s not to like?

In our second major update on this class of agents, today’s story takes a look at where we are, what’s coming up, and where we’re headed in the context of what needs to be accomplished…

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Who’s packing a punch this year?

In 2011 we did an annual ASCO highlight video reel of what to watch out for. Three phase 1 antibodies were included as a potentially exciting new theme to watch out for. Oh, the brickbats and insults I received in my inbox!

Immunotherapy was not de rigeur back then by any stretch of the imagination and people were absolutely furious because it was so way out and bucked the prevailing trend of the day.

Those drugs now generate billions in revenue every quarter between them. Phooey to the naysayers 😉

In our latest AACR 2024 Preview we highlight a dozen early stage clinical developments to watch out for… will some of them pack an unexpected punch?

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Time for a fishing expedition or two

In our fifth preview from the AACR annual meeting being held in San Diego next month, we noticed some intriguing surprises emerging from one class of agents currently being studied both preclinically, as well as in the clinic.

What are they – and why do they matter?

Quite simply, once the implications are understood they may help us understand where the field is headed in the near to medium term – and why some particular combinations might yield some interesting findings…

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San Diego bound for AACR 2024!

In our fourth AACR 2024 preview we’ve going to highlight some emerging trends you should watch out for. We took a look across over 130 abstracts and in an unbiased fashion, delved into the weeds to see what would shake out.

The findings were interesting to say the least:

Some expected, some unexpected surprises, others puzzling, a few provocative ones made me stop and think more about their approach.

It’s all here, black and white…

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A fish eye view of the market

In the third of our Preview series from this year’s AACR meeting, we’re taking a look at an early, if rapidly evolving competitive landscape involving several different modalities – proving there’s often more than one way to skin a cat drug a particular target!

When we last covered this topic there were barely half a dozen developments to highlight, since then this niche has rapidly exploded with a variety of molecules and different companies to add to the mix.

Some key questions facing this field include how will we move on from dose escalation studies, what combinations will make sound sense, and which modalities might offer a wider therapeutic window in order to be combinable with other approaches?  People will always have favourites, so we took an unbiased look at the state of play.

It’s never as easy as it first appears…

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Do not feed the alligators is a common sign seen in the hammock areas of Florida where brackish fresh water abounds.

It has always amazed me people might even consider getting close enough to see them since common sense would tell you to beat a hasty and instant retreat from those big toothy maws!

Similarly in biotechland sometimes there are warning signs aplenty and yet people still ignore them, preferring to focus on the good.

Today’s story is a cautionary one where, much like with those “Do not feed the alligators” signs, researchers and investors might be wiser to heed certain warnings rather than focusing solely on what initially appears to be positive data.

Ignore the warning signs at your peril…

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The romantics wearing rose tinted glasses might well think of successful cancer drug development much like the famous poem by Lord Byron;

“She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies”

Yet the reality is much more opaque with endless cloudy or wet days and foggy nights much more typical than the exception.

There are often unexpected glitches in the form of serious adverse events, drug interactions, biomarker crashes, narrower therapeutic indexes and poor activity.

None of this stops a raft of companies rushing into a niche when it is suddenly declared ‘hot’ and everyone wants a piece of the action.  This creates an entirely different series of issues to tackle such as acquired resistance and cross resistance.

Some of the numbers in this latest research surprised me and left me pondering a series of provocative questions such as who’s going to stand out from the crowd, who is going finesse things in the clinic – and most importantly – who’s going to break the mould with a different approach?

In this article we explain some of the nuances at play and offer some pointers of new directions the field is taking, not all of them, I’m sorry to say, are for the better…

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Image credit: kevron2002

Every time a new class of agents emerges in oncology, I’m reminded of a partial solar eclipse where there’s just enough sunshine to offer some promise or hope, which needs to be balanced with the much larger area of darkness visible to the naked eye.

This darkness can take many forms from tolerability and a narrow therapeutic window to lack of clinical activity.

In the beginning it’s always hard to see the wood from the trees and often there is more conflicting information available than congruence, at least until things shake out more clearly.

There’s also the tricky matter of cross pathway interactions and how they can influence the broader picture in hidden and obvious ways.

As we head into AACR in a few weeks time, this is a good opportunity to take stock on the various landscape changes and put the situation into perspective.

In this review we look at ten key areas and break down what’s known, what’s not known, and how some of the future directions may take shape…

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While there has been much speculation and rah-rah over the supposed demise of oral therapies thanks to the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 including the Part D Redesign, I’m increasingly finding important developments on the targeted therapies front to watch out for.

In the third part of our ongoing mini-series on the PI3K and PIK3CA landscape we’re going to switch to a different example in this niche.

There are some key clinical data due out later this year, which ought to bear watching out for.

The question though, is why – and what ought we to be thinking about in a broader context?

Our latest article reviews the science, the players, the drugs, and explains how we got here…

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Picking the winners in the race

In the second part of this mini-series on an important oncogenic target, we’re going to explore some topics around the theme of coalescence.

This means we can look at how do cancers hijack multiple pathways or co-opt critical cell growth related genes to help drive their own growth, proliferation, and survival.

If we understand the processes involved then we can start thinking about what we can do to interrupt or shut them down then develop relevant therapeutic strategies to tackle them.

Additionally, several targets have now been made druggable where they were considered intractable when this pathway axis was at its peak.  This may offer some fresh opportunities for progress in ways which were not feasible before.

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