Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘GPRC5D CAR T cells’

Gunning for new targets, new approaches

Gunning for new targets, new modalities, and fresh directions

As we look at various emerging early stage oncology pipelines and think about future rising stars, there are a few which stand out for their sheer depth and breadth.

There are some intriguing similarities between them in they have forged multiple collaborations with selective young biotechs over the last few years rather than rely solely on in-house production.

In our latest review, we look at one of these companies and discuss how the various pillars they have chosen to focus on not only fit together, but also lend themselves to cross modality fusion.

The end result is a vibrant pipeline capable of fueling their life cycle management portfolio for quite a few years to come…

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Kaizen in action

Taken on Jan 1st 2023 – a bright new path forward?

Kaizen is the Japanese word for continuous improvement.

It’s all very well companies producing their first blockbuster in oncology, but what then?

The real mark of success in my view is being able to sustain their effort to build a life cycle management portfolio lasting over time, so in effect you generate many more options and opportunities for success over the long run.  This is much harder to achieve.

I think many folks were quite curious to see what would happen to the promising early stage Celgene pipeline once it transferred to BMS. Would the march continue beyond the IMiDs, or would it all wither and die on the vine?

We last took stock of their progress at ASH20 prior to the approvals of ide-cel and liso-cel.  In the two years since then much has happened – both on the approval front and also with the products coming along further behind.

It’s time for a look at how things are progressing, with some surprises in store…

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Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution

Chicago!

Sometimes innovation and revolution can happen in a quiet or stealthy fashion such that one may not notice until they’re in the middle of things.

Oncology R&D doesn’t stand still, it continually evolves as new and practical ideas or solutions to problems emerge, then are tested and finally (hopefully) implemented in the clinic.

The attrition rate is high, as what I call the cone of shame attests to this.

Over the ASCO weekend we saw two such examples of how change in the design of novel agents or cell therapy products can make an impact, in very different ways.

This latest post highlights one of them with two extended expert interviews and some commentary to boot…

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New developments in CAR-T cell therapies including controversial ones

In the second part of our cell therapy series this week, we take on three quite different issues.

These include the following:

  • A new dual CAR in development
  • Where cell therapy may be heading and how to address the limitations
  • The Cellectis CS–1/SLAMF7 clinical hold

Not all CAR T cell therapies are going to end up as a bridge to transplant – some of them are clearly intended to be more efficacious than their predecessors – but along the way the trials, tribulations and clinical challenges continue apace.

These are all meaty topics to consider, so with out much further ado, let’s roll…

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Going beyond BCMA as a target in multiple myeloma

With the startling news this morning that Poseida Therapeutics are abandoning their IPO plans and pursuing a different tack with a $142M investment from Novartis to fund clinical trials for their BCMA-directed CAR T cell therapy program in multiple myeloma, our attention is focused yet again on the highly competitive BCMA niche.

Poseida’s data was revealed at ASH last December and with an ORR of 63%, the initial efficacy was a bit lower than we have seen from rivals Bluebird Bio and Legend/JNJ, although the Penn/Novartis construct reported disappointingly lower responses in a small cohorts of patients, which may explain Novartis’s interest.

There are also other companies/products in this niche including GSK’s ADC, GSK2857916, and Amgen’s T cell bispecific, AMG 420, plus plenty of others with BCMAxCD3 bispecifics who have earlier skin in this increasingly highly competitive game.

Is BCMA enough though?  Is it really the answer to multiple myeloma or are there other approaches that might be better?

Putting new CARs in the spotlight

What of the future for CAR T cell therapies in myeloma beyond the initial generation 2.0 constructs?

We saw a vision for how this market might evolve and sought out some experts to learn more about what they are doing in this niche – what they had to say was really interesting.

After all, as Wayne Gretsky would say, don’t skate to where the hockey puck is (now) but where it will be… that’s a great analogy one cannot resist borrowing for the future of cell therapy in multiple myeloma.

In our latest article, we go beyond BCMA to explore where we think the field might be going and why a tunnel focus on BCMA might not be such a great thing…

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