Biotech Strategy Blog

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

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Advent of a new era in advanced prostate cancer treatment

ASCO21 – we may not be in Chicago, but this year’s virtual ASCO annual meeting does not disappoint in terms of a series of important clinical data emerging, which have the potential to change the cancer treatment landscape.

The results of the Novartis sponsored VISION trial with 177Lu-PSMA–617 in metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) being presented in Sunday’s plenary session opens the door to a new line of treatment options which can only be of benefit to men with refractory disease.

Whether 177Lu-PSMA–617 will end up being the best radioligand therapy targeting PSMA (Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen) remains to be seen, but the company are to be congratulated in breaking new ground, with a clear path to market strategy enabling them to be the first to market in this indication.

Radioligand therapy combines a radioisotope that causes DNA damage, leading to replication stress or cell death with a tumour targeting compound. It offers a lot of potential in many cancer disease settings and is a topic we expect to hear more about as other companies follow Novartis’ lead and more knowledge is gained about optimal patient selection, dosing, sequencing and combination strategies.

Is it Mardi Gras time at ASCO?

For an expert perspective on what the VISION trial means in the context of the evolving prostate cancer landscape, BSB spoke with Dr Oliver Sartor (Tulane), who participated in the 177Lu-PSMA–617 trial.

Dr Oliver Sartor is a global prostate cancer expert who we’ve had the pleasure to talk with a few times over the years. He’s a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans and Medical Director of the Tulane Cancer Center.

He cheerfully told BSB:

“This is an exciting development with the VISION trial and I think it changes the landscape, even though it is sort of at the end of therapy – these patients were pretty heavily pre-treated.

I think it has implications as we look over the overall landscape for a whole variety of patients, and of course, this therapy is likely to move earlier and trials are already designed to help it move earlier. So I’m excited about the progress for a PSMA targeted therapy with Lutetium–177 and I think it is going to have implications for years to come.”

BSB subscribers can read more of Dr Sartor’s perspective on the VISION trial and emerging prostate cancer landscape, subscribers can log-in or you can click to read our ASCO21 coverage.

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Dancing with proteins at the Masquerade

There are probably around a mere dozen or so oncology focused companies developing new masking technologies relating to protease cleavable linkers for antibodies, bispecifics, and antibody drug conjugates (ADCs).

Why might this strategy be useful and what are the means for achieving it?

In our latest expert interview, we focus on one player in this niche to explore their approach, look at what they are doing, and think about where they might be headed in the future in terms of new product development and a novel oncology pipeline.

Will the techniques learned in the oncology arena have utility in other therapy areas as well? After all, let’s not forget for every antagonist there is an agonistic effect applicable elsewhere…

To learn more about this evolving concept and get a heads up on key oncology commentary and insights, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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ASCO21 Off the Beaten Track Part 2

Guess where today’s off the beaten track is from?

At major medical meetings such as ASCO21 we often hear the results of large clinical trials, many of which are dubbed “practice changing” but it’s worth remembering many of these breakthroughs first started out in the hidden corners of various poster halls, where the potential was spotted in preclinical experiments or as a signal seen in an early stage trial…

This is why we spend a lot of time at BSB looking at posters on discovery, translational and clinical data, reporting on emerging preclinical and early trial data, as well as diving deep into the science driving novel targets and biomarkers.

It turns out there are a number of novel pathways and targets at ASCO21 this year.  In this post, we’ve taken a look at several on our radar, which could be relevant if you’re interested in oncology new product development.  Where possible, we also highlight alternative perspectives from either other academic research groups or companies we have interviewed in the past for a broader perspective.

As always, we await the data to be presented at the meeting, but in a world where the challenge is figuring out the signals from the noise, this post offers a few thoughts off the well-beaten track of major clinical trials that we expect to be well covered during the meeting, and while we don’t have all the answers, we do have questions we hope the data will soon answer.

Grab a cup of coffee or your favorite beverage and join us off the beaten track in the run up to ASCO21…

To learn more about our pre ASCO meeting analysis to can get a heads up on key oncology commentary and insights, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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Off the Beaten ASCO21 Track Part 1

There’s always a lot of time and attention focused around phase 3 clinical trial readouts at ASCO, but what about some of the hidden gems where we can learn quite a bit from earlier developments?

This is a two-part series this week where we go off the beaten track on the road less travelled to explore some novel approaches, which may or may not make an impact.

Don’t forget we can often learn as much from negative studies as we do from positive ones because they can teach us what not to do in terms of future design of anti-cancer therapies.

New product development is very much a process of Kaizen, or continuous improvement where we adapt both from what went less well as well as what worked really well.

This year’s ASCO data drop has some important lessons embedded within for those intrigued to dig deeper and pay attention to the finer details…

To learn more about our pre-ASCO meeting analysis to can get a heads up on key oncology commentary and insights, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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Highlights and lowlights from the ASCO21 data drop

It still feels really weird not to be heading off to Chicago O’Hare in a few weeks

Every year at ASCO we take a quick look at various trials which jump out from the first pass of the data once the abstracts become available then follow up with more in-depth previews later.

There are some winners and losers in this mix, as well as some hidden gems and informative analyses to think about.

So without further ado – what stood out this year for better or worse?

To learn more about our pre ASCO meeting analysis to can get a heads up on key oncology commentary and insights, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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A twist in the IO tail

This year’s ASCO meeting promises to be an interesting one, to say the least.

In this preview we take a look at the anti-LAG-3 – it’s half a decade on from when we first wrote about this target so how is the competitive landscape doing now?  In addition, the first phase 3 trial has finally read out so there is much to discuss on this front as well.

There’s also — and this is the key part — there’s a not so obvious twist in the long tail with a look at a future pathway to success in terms of how we might continue to improve performance of IO-IO therapies.

The potential answer may well turn out to be a surprising one to many who haven’t been following the field closely…

To learn more about our pre ASCO meeting analysis to can get a heads up on key oncology commentary and insights, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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Digging deep on SHP2 and KRAS

A bright future ahead or early warning signs?

It’s time for another update on the KRAS and SHP2 niches… it seems this space is much faster moving than our previous quarterly rolling updates in the past on other areas such as T70M in EGFR mutant lung cancers, checkpoint blockade in NSCLC, or new developments in CAR-T or CLL/iNHL.

It’s a sign of the modern times.

There’s always new entrants, new science and new clinical data to learn more about so without much further ado, let’s roll…

To learn more about our ongoing reporting on the KRAS niche to get a heads up on key oncology commentary and insights, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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When PARP and immunotherapy worlds collide

Picking a PARPi – what can the biology tell us?

How many observers realised there’s more than one member of the PARP family?

There’s quite a bit to be learned in the DNA damage repair (DDR) and replication stress niche, especially when it’s new targets, new tumour types and even new companies to look at.

In our latest post on this space we switch horses from big Pharma and continue the story with some interesting findings from the biotech side of the R&D fence.

This is a key trend we’ll be following going into ASCO next month as we start to see the layers peeled off the onion and get a lot at what’s working, where it’s working and just as importantly, what’s not…

To learn more about our ongoing post AACR21 and pre ASCO meeting analysis along with a company expert interview to get a heads up on key oncology commentary and insights, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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The future of breast cancer research

It’s time to take a look at what we can learn from the latest round of talks from the ESMO Breast Cancer conference held late last week.

To be clear this post isn’t a rundown of various company data presentations per se, although a couple are mentioned, but rather it’s a more strategic look at the emergent issues and where we are likely headed in the future.

What trends stand out when we take this approach?

We also segue to ASCO and highlight some relevant key abstracts we’ll be following at the forthcoming meeting.

In short, there’s a lot to think about and accomplish over the next couple of years.  As Dr Eric Winer challenged his colleagues – “can we do better?” – and if so, how do we go about achieving this?

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

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Tooting the DDR horn

Every year the sweet spot sandwiched between AACR and ASCO comes around all to quickly, as we’re wrapping up interviews conducted at one and preparing the previews for the other, never mind ESMO Breast, AAI, and ASGCT all coming in May as well.

Cambridge Botanical Gardens

This year is no different and I’m delighted to say they segue rather nicely for once!

It’s hard to believe we’ve been writing about DNA damage repair and PARP inhibitors since 2008/2009 or so, and still this topic just keeps growing and growing!

We’ve certainly come a long way since those early days and now the broader DDR niche is also expanding as more targets are identified and evaluated, both in animal models as well as the clinic.

This list will also increase as CRISPR screens continue to identify synthetically lethal targets – some will be useful, others will fall by the wayside due to lack of efficacy or poor tolerability. Finding a balance between the two will therefore be a big key to success.

In this post we’re going to start with an update on the PARP1/2 inhibitors then catch up on data from other DDR family targets and finally explore a pipeline discussion with an industry expert who is well versed in the DDR field.

To learn more about our ongoing post AACR21 and pre ASCO meeting analysis and expert interviews to get a heads up on key oncology commentary and insights, subscribers can log-in or you can click to gain access to BSB Premium Content.

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