Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘durvalumab’

Standing out from the crowd in lung cancer

What’s standing out from the crowd in lung cancer?

It seems hard to imagine only a few years ago lung cancer was still in the doldrums with various chemotherapy doublet and triplet regimens showing little or no benefit for people with small cell (SCLC) or non-small cell (NSCLC) lung cancer.

Fast forward and my, how things have changed today with a raft of targeted and immunotherapies making a real difference to many people’s lives!

In our latest discussion highligting important trial readouts and published data, we also offer some potential new developments which might be useful down the road…

BSB subscribers can read more on our latest update and commentary regarding lung cancer – you can log-in or click to access our latest analysis.

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Which early phase agents look promising – or not – ASCO21?

New product development and early phase anti-cancer agents have been very much a focus on BSB (and PSB before it) since their inception.

It’s fascinating to realise one of the compounds selected for review in this article has its origins in a much one earlier trial with serious incidents we saw in a trial in novel volunteers with a different company and product and originally inspired the beginning of our scientific writing in 2006.

By an interesting quirk of history, the first time we wrote about PARP inhibition was in the same year and now it is one of the selections in the ASCO plenary today.  You can read more about the olaparib OlympiaD trial write-up here, proof that all successful products eventually started off in developmental therapeutics at some point in their early career!

In this latest review, we selected eight anti-cancer compounds currently undergoing phase 1/2 trials and put them through their paces… some are more positive than expected, some were downright disappointing, some were off to an encouraging start, others the count is out until we see more robust data.

How is the report card looking this year?  Some reflections and thoughts to consider…

To find out, BSB subscribers can read more on our perspectives regarding Developmental Therapeutics and various early stage compounds, subscribers can log-in or you can click to read our ongoing ASCO21 coverage.

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A contrarian view of key cancer trial results

One thing I really miss from attending live conferences – aside from catching up with people in person – is “the living like a local” experience. Last time I was in Madrid, for example, there was this fishmonger (pescaderia) just a block down from the rented apartment. They were only open in the mornings, so you could dash down the hill, quickly nab some fresh produce, refrigerate it and have something nice to look forward to for dinner with a glass of wine at the end of a tiring day while writing up the highlights…

The image also offers another analogy – do some data presented at a meeting end up, well, a bit fishy on closer examination or reflection despite much of the hype enthused or extolled by others?

At the ESMO20 virtual Congress, we covered a tremendous amount of details from the data during both the daily highlights as well as the previews exploring what to watch out in the run-up to the event.  You can find all those reviews here.

There are always some surprises in store, however, both good and bad.  There’s also layers of obfuscation going on to consider in the form of cheerleading from companies, investigators, or stock holders, which may add positive spin on what is essentially so-so data, cases where great data goes largely ignored for whatever reason, or important lessons to be learned from failure.

In this wrap-up post, we take a sharp look at the ESMO20 winners, losers, and risers from a contrarian’s perspective…

To learn more from our oncology analysis and get a heads up on the latest insights and commentary pertaining to ESMO20 virtual congress, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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Highlights of Super Saturday at ESMO20

Not in Madrid: Unlike the Tour de France, which finishes with the peloton procession in Paris today, we’re not yet at the ESMO20 finish line and there’s plenty of the data at Congress yet to come.

Macarons anyone?

As you can see, we’re hoping ESMO21 will actually take place in Paris next year, but it’s definitely too early to make travel plans the way COVID-19 infection rates are increasing in Europe.

If we think of cancer drugs as like macarons that come in many versions – which ones do you like at #ESMO20 so far? There are are also subtle gradations in colour and flavour, reflective of a few trial differences to consider.

In this latest post we’re continuing our coverage of highlights from Saturday at ESMO20 with the second part of our commentary and analysis around some of the oral presentations involving numerous solid tumours, excluding breast cancer (see separate highlights of the day post), which caught our attention.

To learn more from our oncology analysis and obtain insights and commentary around data being presented at ESMO20, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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What’s new in advanced breast cancer?

This weekend in the oncology conference calendar saw the ESMO Breast meeting take place.

The event was originally planned as a live event in Berlin – sadly with the pandemic it ended up as a virtual meeting on Central European time, yet you can still imagine the Berlin bear welcoming everyone regardless of format!

This is a good time to take off we we left off last week with our SERD landscape review since there was some new clinical data presented in this niche, as well as segue to the ASCO meeting on Friday where other companies will also be showcasing their early data.

Aside from SERDs, there were plenty of other highlights and commentary to consider in advanced breast cancer.

Here we explore some of the findings and offer some context for at least one commercial showdown…

To learn more from our oncology analysis and get a heads up on insights and commentary emerging from the ESMO Breast and ASCO meetings, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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Insights from KEYNOTE-522 in early stage TNBC

Cui bono?

Imagine arriving at ESMO19 at the crack of dawn for a press briefing and you’re not presenting until after 4.30pm!

To whom is it a benefit is a fundamental principle in modern day medicine given the often vast array of options that oncologists may have at their disposal.

Conversely, we also need to know nec refert – for whom it doesn’t matter or doesn’t benefit – since we don’t want to over-treat people either.

Between those two extremes might be a couple of sweetspots i.e. one subset who may need a boost from chemotherapy and another in whom chemo plus IO therapy might be a better option.

For sure, we are not advocating that all people with early stage triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) should receive the same thing and certainly not everyone will need checkpoint therapy, no matter what the intent-to-treat (ITT) curves or response rates might try to imply.

There’s a lot of factors to think about and consider so here we look at the KEYNOTE–522 data in neoadjuvant and adjuvant TNBC and unearthed with some solid evidence that might help us understand and think about what needs to be done.

Following on from our in-depth ESMO19 Preview on TNBC and what to watch out for, we also now have a thought leader interview to share plus several other commentators chipping in…

To learn more from our latest coverage on early stage triple negative breast cancer and get a heads up on our latest thought leader interview, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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Controversies in triple negative breast cancer at ESMO19

One of the expected highlights of the forthcoming European Society for Medical Oncology (Twitter #ESMO19) will be data for breast cancer immunotherapy.

In the first of our pre-ESMO19 previews we are taking a closer look at three breast cancer immunotherapy presentations that we think are noteworthy.

As a reminder, the abstracts are not yet available, so we’re not writing about data that’s not yet been presented, but instead are looking at why the presentations may be of scientific/medical interest, and what the questions we hope they will answer. In cancer biology as we heard from Professor Gerard Evan in a recent expert interview, it’s not about “what” happened, but “why”?

We have “boots on the ground” in Barcelona from Sept 27th to October 1st providing daily posts for BSB subscribers with our unique blend of data, analysis and commentary.

Do download the ESMO19 app if you want to check out what already looks like it will be a busy, informative and interesting congress in Barcelona. Hopefully the rain that struck the recent World Lung meeting in Barcelona will have gone away, leaving us with a sunny and dry spell one normally associates with Spain!

To learn more from our latest oncology conference insights and get a heads up on our latest ESMO Preview, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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Highlights of Day 1 of ASCO19

The 2019 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Twitter #ASCO19) is now in full swing, and we’re kicking off our on-site meeting coverage with a review of the some of the highlights of Friday here in Chicago.

In today’s Daily Highlights we offer seven areas of interest and offer commentary on the insights gleaned from the data that is rolling out so far…

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Learning from failure with IO combos

AstraZeneca miss on OS in the phase 3 MYSTIC trial – what next?

Getting there… in 1L NSCLC

At one point we were posting almost quarterly updates on the runners and riders in the 1L NSCLC niche and what a roller coaster it has turned out to be!

There have been some successes, failures, and even mixed results so far, suggesting that there’s no room for complacency here.

Previously, AstraZeneca were the first to readout out on PFS in the MYSTIC trial and missed, meaning they had to go to the back of the queue and patiently await the OS data. Since then, we’ve seen several phase 3 trials from Merck, Genentech/Roche and BMS all readout without any real rhyme, reason or consistency between them.

Now AstraZeneca are back in the spotlight with a not altogether unexpected miss on median OS.

It’s easy for people to kick a dog when it’s down rather than take a moment to reflect on the deeper meaning – what does the result mean both for the company and other key players in this highly competitive landscape? What can we learn from this experience and other recent results?

To answer that, we put some insights and analysis together in our latest update on the space…

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Fitting it all together – what does the post ASCO Lung Cancer Landscape look like?

It is always a pleasure to talk with experts who have a clear vision of not just what the current treatment landscape looks like, but where the field is going.

Dr Stephen Liu at ASCO18

Dr Stephen Liu is a medical oncologist and assistant professor at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC, where he specializes in thoracic oncology.  He’s also actively involved in clinical trials and developmental therapeutics.

We last interviewed him at ASCO 2016 – you can also hear him on Episode 13 of the Novel Targets Podcast – where he shared his thoughts on some of the early lung cancer immunotherapy combination trials underway.

As regular readers know, we like to follow stories over time and also catch up with thoughtful, intelligent people we’ve talked to in the past whose opinions we value.

Dr Liu kindly shared his highlights of ASCO 2018 in lung cancer, and in a wide ranging discussion, also offered some thoughts on what the future may hold and where we may be going next.

There was a lot to learn from Chicago this year, with plenty of nuances and subtleties to consider. If you read only one post on lung cancer from ASCO18, this interview tells you all you need to know!

To learn more and get a heads up on our latest expert interview and oncology insights, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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