Biotech Strategy Blog

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

About MaverickNY

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Posts by MaverickNY

Whipping up a frenzy in CAR-T cell future developments

Whipping up the CAR-T cell niche

In the sixth and final part of the latest CAR-T cell therapy mini-series, we take a look at a really key factor that will need to be addressed if we want to move forward in both hematologic and solid tumours in terms of improved outcomes.

To be clear, this is not about the obvious – tackling immune suppression – but something entirely different!

Now, that might well mean incorporating new regimens in the process or it could lead to version 3.0 in terms of new constructs to be tested in the clinic in due course.

What’s not to like?

Added bonus in this review is that it’s not one voice expressed here, but rather the consolidated perspective of four different experts, so you can quickly see clarity and differences of opinion on several topics…

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Quest for the Holy Grail of Cell Therapy

CAR T cell therapy for solid tumours is the cancer new product development equivalent of the quest for the “Holy Grail.” It remains one of the cell therapy challenges of the coming decade.

Light inspires and illuminates

In this post we shine the light on one of the world’s leading cell therapy experts who is taking on that challenge.

Most of our posts are what is known in the business as “long-form” and this one is no exception; it’s over 7,000 words long and offers a veritable smorgasbord of insights into new cell therapies for blood cancers and solid tumours, novel targets, as well as future directions, including a company in stealth mode…

Curious to learn more about this important topic on cracking the code and the quest to find solutions?

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What does the next decade hold for CAR T cell therapy?

At the start of the New Year, Dr Carl June (@carlhjune) who needs no introduction as one of pioneers of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy tweeted that, “2020 will be the decade of cell therapy and genome engineering.”

So what does the next decade hold for CAR T cell therapy?

At the recent 2nd European CAR T cell meeting, jointly organized by EHA and EBMT, we asked the man himself to tell us more about his vision.

In Sitges, Dr June kindly spoke to BSB and shared his thoughts on where he sees the CAR T field going, some of the key challenges that will need to be overcome, as well as some of the opportunities to watch out for.

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Chasing the Light in Cell Therapy

Sunrise over Sitges

Sitges – One of the noticeable things about Sitges, a former fishing village south of Barcelona, is the quality of the light. We could imagine it, like St Ives in Cornwall, as being home to artists in times past.

The sunrises and sunsets have been particularly impressive. When it comes to oncology new product development, we’re all chasing the light and the potential of a cure. That’s the promise of cancer immunotherapy.

Here at the 2nd European CAR T cell meeting, jointly organized by EHA and EBMT, we’ve heard about where we’re at with current cell therapies, some of the many challenges that have yet to be overcome and we’ve been offered insights into where some in the field are going.

2020 will be a landmark year for CAR T cell therapy with new regulatory approvals on the horizon, particularly in myeloma, but the journey to make these therapies effective in solid tumours is one where we still need to chase the light.

In this post you can read our notes and commentary on day 2 in Sitges and what caught our attention at the meeting.

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Shooting for the stars with next generation cell therapies

Sitges, Spain

Sitges – It’s time to explore new opportunities for cell therapy at the second edition of the European CAR T cell meeting, jointly organized by the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) and European Hematology Association (EHA) kicked off today in Sitges, just south of Barcelona.

With over 1,000 attendees, there’s a lot of interest in the cell therapy field and registrations for the meeting sold out quickly.

That’s not surprising given the impressive line-up of the good and great in the field of cell therapy including Stan Riddell, Carl June, Crystal Mackall, Michel Sadelain, and many others.

There’s also a raft of presentations on the challenges and opportunities for cell therapy, along with presentations of new and emerging approaches in the posters.

In this post you’ll find our reactions and commentary on some of the key messages and insights that emerged and takeaways from the first day at the CAR-T meeting.

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Life, the world, and the cell therapy universe

In our latest expert interview, we depart from the usual focus on one of two particular or narrow topics and indulge in a more wide ranging discussion to explore a variety of issues facing the IO field and look at them from the perspective of a researcher who is experienced in working with antibodies in various forms.

We cover a lot of ground from CAR-T cells to bispecifics to NK cells – while many people in industry may see these approaches as separate modalities in different niches, in the future we may well see a greater convergent and opportunities for regimens and combinations rather than a more nihilistic either/or approach.

I have long been fascinated with design of molecules and how different tweaks or enhancements can change the way something works – for better or worse. Just as we have learned much from immune agonists and their biphasic curves that result from constant stimulation (and ways to fix that too), so too will we see CARs, T cell engagers, and NK cell therapies adapt and improve in terms of how they are constructed.

Who better to talk about these changes and the learnings to be had lately than someone who has built and tested many antibodies for a living and is now running his own company?

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An up and coming IO company to watch out for

With the continued noise in cancer immunotherapies all too often focused on the now well established checkpoint blockade and CAR-T cell therapies, with bispecifics often seen as the next up and coming area, it is all too easy to forget or perhaps not be aware of plenty of other promising approaches in biotech pipelines.

Who would have guessed a decade ago that any of those three approaches would have ended up as becoming mainstream in the oncology space?

Time for a different perspective on the immunotherapy front?

At ASCO in 2010 I distinctly recall writing enthusiastically about early phase 1 data on ipilimumab, plus BMS–936558 (nivolumab), MK–3475 (pembrolizumab), and MPDL3208A (atezolizumab), while many others were more into eulogising vaccines such Dendreon’s sipuleucel-T (Provenge) and Celldex’s CDX–110, and mainstream outlets explored late stage clinical updates on BRAF inhibition (PLX4032, vemurafenib), targeting ALK (crizotinib), or even Sunesis’s voreloxin (remember that?) – fun times! Many people thought it was crazy to get excited about initial phase 1 data on the immunotherapy antibodies back then and few would have imagined them subsequently garnering a billion dollars a month in revenues back then either.

It’s now time for the horses to change as we continue our look at emerging biotechs with quite different scientific approaches to immunotherapy, which we think are well worth looking at. These are young companies going places with early clinical pipelines and a fresh approach to R&D.

After all, the checkpoint inhibitors mentioned earlier started at the beginning too – look how they turned out, not too shabbily either.

In this latest example, we take a look at a promising biotech’s immunotherapy pipeline through the lens of a CSO’s perspective and chat about the basic immunological underpinings that are driving their scientific innovation… it is well thought out, in my view.

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New developments in GI cancers from ASCO GI 2020

Are GI cancers still marooned on an island or are they catching up with other solid tumours in terms of progress?

San Francisco – In the past, whenever I posted updates on any of the GI cancers they attracted noticeably less attention than other solid tumours and rightly so, especially given the lack of new agents and compelling data. If the highlight of a meeting is debating the merits of left versus right side tumour responses or bolus versus infusional administration then the plot has kind of been lost in the morass of abstracts available.

This year, however, things are looking up with a tidy group of studies that have what I call ‘interestingness’ – in other words, results that will tempt us to look deeper rather than merely skim in the hope of something new and shiny.

This weekend in San Francisco saw some highlights (and also lowlights) in the form of new clinical data emerging from the 2020 ASCO GI conference. That means we’re due a review so let’s rock ’n roll though the important studies to see what stands out from the crowd…

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Lining up multiple approaches in AML

Stacking up the various modalities – what do we find?

It’s time to talk about an particular target in AML because there are now a variety of different modalities involved since we last covered it, which makes it rather more intriguing than most. There’s antibodies, ADCs, CAR-T cell therapies, stem cells, and various bispecifics to name a few such examples.

To be clear, we’re not talking about CD123 here either, but rather an entirely different protein that is receiving increasing attention from multiple companies.

How does the evidence stack up?  Will one particular approach stand out from all the others?

Next, perhaps what makes this post even more interesting is we have an engaging interview with one of the company CEO’s in this niche to share, so we can see how they view things from the lens of looking at things in a different way from many of the other competitors.

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Competition rapidly heats up in the KRAS space!

The calm before the storm as the KRAS competition heats up and also gets more complex in the process

I was very tempted to tease everyone and say something along the lines of… ‘while you were all partying, there was some new KRAS clinical data being presented somewhere in the world’ but that would be rather naughty, I suspect.

Instead, I’ll simply point out that it’s time to take a look at the latest phase 1 data in the KRAS niche.

What more clinical data already?!

Yes there is and what’s more it doesn’t belong to the either of the leading two in the early race to market, aka Amgen and Mirati.  There’s a whole bigger world out there for those interested in following the broader slate runners and riders.  It pays to pay attention because this is not a race about single agent therapies, rather it’s about who figures out the optimal combinations and is able to finesse that better than their competitors.  Like real horse races, an unexpected runner can surprise a few folks by making a strong push on the rails or a bounding leap round the outside like Lester Piggott was famous for doing.

This highly specialised field is moving much faster than the BRAFV600E arena was a decade ago and there’s also more players involved too, plus multiple different approaches and targets to consider, which I expect we will be covering quite a few times during 2020.

Are you ready?

Get set, GO!

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