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

A delicate balancing act

Kostis Georgiou: Eutopia and Corpus aluminium sculptures

One of the biggest challenges with drug development in many advanced cancers is finding the sweet spot between safety and activity…

And hoping it will be a wide one!

It’s a particularly delicate balancing act in hematologic malignancies, however.

In our latest review we explore an up and coming niche in acute leukemias and look at how well companies are doing, including some new and early entrants…

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New directions in a post IO apocalypse

New directions can take many forms when it comes to oncology these days

It’s been an interesting exercise of late to watch how companies in the oncology arena have been planning and tackling both their new strategic five year reviews, as well as upcoming patent expiries.

If they want to maintain or even improve on their current growth rate then they have to set out a realistic plan for the future.

Some have come across as panicked and unconvincing with that ‘deer in the headlights’ look, while other come across as calm and

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Bicycling to new heights

Tadej Pogačar in the Giro D’Italia TT 2024 in Foligno  Source: Blue Ice Publishing

The leader of the Giro d’Italia wears the iconic pink jersey or Magli Rosa.

Not only is it appropriate for cancer research, but we think a long distance cycle race has a lot in common with cancer research – think about racing in stages, in a dynamic environment, and overcoming adverse conditions.

In this post we take a closer look at an aptly named company Bicycle Therapeutics through the lens of an interview with their CEO, Dr Kevin Lee.

We also take a closer look at the science and what strategic opportunities their novel designs may offer.

Will their Bicycle Toxin Conjugates and Bicycle Radio Conjugates take the cancer new product development to new heights and end up being the “race” leader?

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Degraders and glues – time for a pitstop

With all the noise and attention on marquee trials involving targeted therapies and immuno-oncology at cancer conferences lately, it’s all to easy to forget about numerous early stage developments making stealthier progress.

In this review we highlight another half a dozen such developments, which may be worth taking note of.

Not all of them will successfully make it to phase 3 trials so what can we learn about the latest available clinical data?

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Revving up for next generation IO agents

Are the new crop of early IO agents revving up to go or are the wheels coming off already?

Early stage product development in oncology is fraught with many difficulties once it gets into first-in-human testing in the  clinic.

Balancing activity and toxities to finesse the therapeutic window is just one of the challenges to consider during dose escalation trials.

There’s also figuring out where these agents might perform best, in which line of therapy, with which combination partner, or how about the optimal dose/schedule?

In this review we explore half a dozen new products with different targets and modalities and put them through their paces.  What does the analysis tell us?

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Breaking down doors at ASCO24

One of the themes we have been watching out for at ASCO this year is new targets and novel combination strategies.

In each of the daily highlights we have selected five examples which jump out – for various reasons.

The early phase 1/2 trials obviously won’t be practice changing in the way a major global pivotal trial will be, yet they often offer useful clues for some of the new direections coming through company pipelines.

Today’s selection are a mix of early and late stage trials to ponder…

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Bridge over troubled waters at ASCO24

The devil as they say is in the detail and teasing out what oncology clinical trial data really means can be challenging for the best of us.

In this post we take a look at several trials  reported out at ASCO24 and consider some of the nuances around the data, in particular what cancer new product professionals may need to think about in order to have an informed opinion.

For some, the data is a bridge over troubled waters, while for others the results were perhaps a bridge too far…

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Controversies and pitfalls at ASCO24

Time for a pitstop to reflect on some ASCO24 data

Day 1 at ASCO is usual a nice easy glide into the clinical sessions with barely a moment of controversy to be seen.

Not this year, however.

If you’re going to buck the trend then you might as well do it with a splash – something which can be interpreted positively or negatively depending upon your perspective.

Talking of pitstops always reminds me of those colourful Hanna-Barbera Wacky Races cartoons so familiar from our childhood with their insanely odd vehicles and absurd plot developments.

Are some of the claims coming out of Chicago living up to these expectations one might well wonder?

In the first of our daily commentaries from the annual meeting, we take a look at four very different trial readouts and discuss the issues they raise because all is not what it seems in some cases…

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How to beat your competition

With new trial data being presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) today, a provocative question on the minds of many interested in hematologic malignancies is…

Do we really need yet another tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)? Is it time to go in a new direction?

Instead I’m going to turn it around and suggest we consider the issue in an entirely different way:

What’s the best thing to do for people living with CML?

The solution lies not in the usual chestnut about having more choice or available options, but rather in how can they be helped more by having access to a different therapy?  What do they gain or lose from it?

When we look at the situation in this fashion then the answer quietly speaks for itself…

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A Renaissance in Biomarkers at ASCO24

Duomo, Firenze – a Renaissance masterpiece

This week I have been very much struck by the stark contrast between the neat, organised, and predictable nature of Renaissance architecture and the chaotic, complex, and interconnected challenge of developing robust cancer biomarkers.

While Renaissance architects could rely on established mathematical principles to create harmonious designs, scientists working on cancer biomarkers must navigate a much more unpredictable and intricate landscape, seeking patterns and reliable indicators in the midst of biological complexity.

While biomarkers are much harder to find amidst the chaos of tumour heterogeneity, this doesn’t mean the task is impossible or we should stop the attempt altogether.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite, as these intriguing examples we’ve selected for discussion from the ASCO abstracts this year illustrate…

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