Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘IDO Immuno-oncology’

Having heard about a one day symposium on immunotherapy organised by Charles River, I headed over to Munich and the EORTC-NCI-AACR conference a day early… Providentially it seems, as the Lufthansa strike will likely affect a few travellers en route to the Triple and ASH/WCLC/SABCS conferences.

cr-ena2016The focus of this excellent one day event was on ‘Mapping the future of cancer drug discovery.’

So what stood out as interesting and intriguing?

Quite a few things, as it turned out, including a novel target in cancer research that I haven’t come across before.

To learn more insights, subscribers can log-in

This content is restricted to subscribers

One of our popular series from conferences is Gems from the Poster Halls, where we take a look at some of the studies or research data that caught our attention and explain how they may have future significance. In the past, posters have lead to phase 2 or 3 trial designs and subsequent approval. Others have sadly missed signals in small studies that could have prevented an expensive phase 3 faiure. Hence, it is often important to pay attention to posters.

esmo16-poster-hall

The ESMO16 Poster Hall Maze

Posters can also give early warning for what’s developing in pipelines. The BTK inhibitor, ibrutinib, was originally codenamed CRA–032765 (at Celera) and later PCI–32765 (at Pharmacyclics), for example, while the PI3K-delta inhibitor, idelalisib started life as CAL–101 (at Calistoga). We previously followed the progress of these compounds while they were in preclinical and phase 1 and documented progress long before they became active drugs in a race to market in CLL.

My favourite codename is always going to be STI–571 (imatinib). We would start planning ASCO and ASH activities every January and September, so companies should be well in hand in their preparations for ASH and SABCS by now. There’s a tremendous amount of work involved behind the scenes in order to have a great event, and I’m not talking about the fripperies like exhibits and light boxes here.

Last year at ECCO, StemCentRx burst on the scene and were subsequently acquired at a significant premium by AbbVie, taking quite a few people by surprise.

So what can we learn about the data from ESMO this year? What new trends are emerging this time around?

Here, we take a fresh look at FOUR interesting new developments from small and large pharma/biotech companies alike in Part 2 of the Gems series. In the first one [Link], we interviewed an expert and discussed their approach to biomarkers in early small studies to help them better design larger follow-on trials more effectively.

To learn more about our insights, Subscribers can log in..

This content is restricted to subscribers

It’s a funny old world sometimes… I was planning to post a mini series on immuno-oncology presentations from ESMO this week and review what we had learned from the new data, good and not so good. This morning’s sudden announcement from Genentech regarding their latest collaboration is therefore rather timely:

“An exclusive worldwide licensing agreement and research collaboration with NewLink Genetics for the discovery and development of IDO (indoleamine-(2,3)-dioxygenase) pathway inhibitors for the potential treatment of cancer.”

There are a number of reasons why they might do this that make a lot of solid scientific sense.

To learn more about our insights, subscribers can log-in.

This content is restricted to subscribers

error: Content is protected !!