Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘ASCO 2015 Blog’

Chicago – the cancer immunotherapy poster session yesterday morning was “mobbed,” that is the only word to describe it. I have never seen such a crowded poster session at any medical meeting before. It speaks to the huge interest in this growing field.

It’s also a reflection that insights into the future direction of the field will be found in posters about preclinical and early work, rather than in oral presentations that reflect strategic decisions made a long time earlier.

We know checkpoint inhibitors work in many cancers, and a few more have been added to the list at this meeting. While that’s interesting, the real question is how do we increase the response rate and also get them to work in non-immunogenic tumors?

Yesterday in the poster session at ASCO, there was a poster that caught our attention on one approach that may achieve this. We briefly wrote about it in the ASCO Day 2 blog.

Also of note yesterday was that the new generic name for the PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor from Roche/Genentech. MPDL3280A is now atezolizumab. A few presenters stumbled over the pronunciation, it was so new…… and all the z’s add to the trickiness!

As to what Day 3 at ASCO holds, we’ll be updating this blog during the day as our schedule permits.

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Chicago – after an evening of beer and networking at the unofficial ASCO15 Tweetup, the ASCO annual meeting, like a checkpoint inhibitor combination, releases the break and steps on the gas: the main data presentations start today. It’s “super saturday” at ASCO15.

Yesterday, the press had a preview of some of the cancer immunotherapy data to be presented this morning – we’ve shared our preliminary thoughts on this in yesterday’s ASCO15 Day 1 Cancer Immunotherapy post.

So what’s hot at #ASCO15 today?

We’ll be doing a rolling post throughout the day – when the opportunity presents we’ll provide some topline thoughts on sessions we’ve been to.

If you are here at ASCO, one #ImmunOnc presentation to watch out for this morning is the David A Karnofsky memorial award and lecture being given by Suzanne L. Topalian, MD in the main plenary hall (N Hall B1) at 11am.

From the recent presentations we’ve heard from her at AACR and AAI, her lecture entitled, “PD-1 Pathway Blockade – a Common Denominator for Cancer Therapy” should definitely worth listening to!

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