Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘Ipilimumab’

Shining a beacon

Shining a beacon on key GI trials

After covering a lot of science of late it’s now time to review some recent clinical data, discuss some of the implications of the findings, and their potential impact.

After all, science doesn’t exist in a vacuum and how it translates into outcomes in people living with cancer is an important part of the process.

Can we help them live longer and feel better are two important questions to ask when looking at study readouts.

Let’s not forget there’s quite a difference when considering the exposure of light from a lighthouse beacon versus a typical torch.

The former is designed to produce an extremely powerful, far-reaching beam that can propagate over long distances. A torch has much more modest lighting capabilities suitable for short-range use. The exact brightness difference depends on the specific lighthouse and torch, but it can reasonably be assumed the lighthouse beam is orders of magnitude more intense.

In a similar fashion, we need to look at phase 1 and 3 trials through different lenses, just as we ought to do with the potential 14th agent to market versus the first…

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Setting the scene

Can TIGIT stand out from the crowd in gastric cancer?

We have seen all sorts of molecules come along in gastric-esophageal carcinomas, from antibodies, ADCs, bispecifics, small molecules, even CAR-T cell therapies.  Some have been more successful than others.

As the competition heats up even in the expanding number of subniches, it’s going to take some stellar data to stand out from the crowd.

We’ve already seen several miss such as Beigene’s much touted Fc-competent anti-TIGIT antibody ociperlimab in the second line setting at ESMO23 last month, while pembrolizumab continued its onward march at the ESMO Plenary back in February.

Now we have three more earlier stage agents to look at across different modalities such as Akeso’s PD1xCTLA4 bispecific cadonilimab, Keymed/AstraZeneca’s Claudin 18.2 ADC CMG901 and Arcus/Gilead’s anti-TIGIT antibody, domvanalimab.

In our latest review, we take a look at how these agents are doing…

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A novel molecule may lead to the Secret Garden

One of the joys of oncology research is that it’s data driven, which means companies can quite clearly see how others have fared, and where the gaps and opportunities lie for new product development.

There is always the potential to unlock the gates to the “secret garden,” whether it be targeting a tumour type previously considered intractable, treating an unmet medical need where there are few or no effective therapies, or in the case of immuno-oncology, manipulating the tumour microenvironment in a way that leads to an improvement in the long tail of survival we’re all looking for.

In addition to improved outcomes, you also need a safety profile with a favourable benefit/risk ratio, where there aren’t intolerable or life changing side effects or an increased risk of death. Who said it was easy?

Innovation takes many forms, and in this post we’re looking at how one biotech company may have unlocked the key to a secret garden through the optimised design of their molecule.  As always, it’s early days although it’s good to see companies looking to solve hard problems because the easy low hanging fruit wins in immuno-oncology went a long time ago.

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Reflections on ESMO22

Vive La France! 

Despite the raft of negative trials presented in Paris this year, it wasn’t all bad news, although for a while it certainly seemed this way with quite a few phase 3 trials missing their primary endpoints.

It’s time for our ESMO review where we highlight no less than 10 trials offering positive vibes and encouraging signals, particularly in early stage development.

So what were the standouts and why do they matter?

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Sorting out confusion, confliction, and confounding results in clear cell RCC

Which direction should we go in early stage RCC?

The battle for early stage RCC at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) is turning out to be quite a humdinger this year with quite a few unexpected surprises in store given the variety of trials with different agents and combinations generating a disparate variety of readouts.

Why is this and what can we do/learn from the findings?

In this post, we offer an in-depth discussion and commentary from various GU and IO experts…

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New controversies in GI malignancies

Gastronomic delicacies in Paris

In our second ESMO 2022 Preview we take a look at some of the key trials being presented in gastrointestinal cancers and highlight what to watch out for on this front.

While a few readers will no doubt be keen to skip to the KRAS section to learn more about sotorasib and adagrasib in colorectal cancer, make no mistake there’s plenty going on in new product development in several other GI cancers too, both with targeted therapies as well as immunotherapies.

Curious to learn more?

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ESMO22 Preview 1 – what to watch out for in breast cancer

Time to make your selections!

This year seems to be going all to quickly as we have arrived in time for the annual ESMO Preview series.

This year we have a lot of topics to cover from a review of various solid tumour types, novel targets and developmental therapeutics, hematologic malignancies, as well as various IO and cell therapy related readouts.

As always, the goal of our previews is to not only provide some context for what to expect, but also to highlight potential success and failures since not all of the trials have been headlined by the companies concerned.

It’s all to easy to forget agents in the same class of therapeutics can produce quite different outcomes despite similarly looking trial designs, as we will find out…

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Unheralded developments in renal cell carcinoma

Graffiti in Adams Morgan, Chicago

Not in Chicago – It’s fascinating in a way that while there’s often much time and attention devoted to the big three cancers of breast, lung, and prostate carcinomas, genitourinary cancers such as renal and bladder are often forgotten or sadly ignored.

Not here on BSB – we probably write as often on this segment, as we do about the other categories.

The good news is there are some key abstracts we are looking forward to hearing more about this year with either important top line results to ponder or some detailed biomarker analyses coming out.

As we wait for the digital poster hall to open, it’s time to switch focus from the hurly burly of yesterday’s news…

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On finding new targets and boosting existing therapies

Science drives oncology new product development and the AACR special conferences are always a good place to look for insights into where the field is both emerging and also going in the future.

At the recent AACR Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy conference, several presentations stood out for us as being noteworthy for either building on an existing story or the new perspectives they offered, some of which involved new targets we’d not heard before.

In this post, we take a take at some of the data presented, how it builds upon what we already know, and possible directions it may take us in.  After all, the best way to predict the future is to invent it.

It’s time to shine some light on novel targets, biomarkers, and emerging combination approaches…

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A contrarian view of key cancer trial results

One thing I really miss from attending live conferences – aside from catching up with people in person – is “the living like a local” experience. Last time I was in Madrid, for example, there was this fishmonger (pescaderia) just a block down from the rented apartment. They were only open in the mornings, so you could dash down the hill, quickly nab some fresh produce, refrigerate it and have something nice to look forward to for dinner with a glass of wine at the end of a tiring day while writing up the highlights…

The image also offers another analogy – do some data presented at a meeting end up, well, a bit fishy on closer examination or reflection despite much of the hype enthused or extolled by others?

At the ESMO20 virtual Congress, we covered a tremendous amount of details from the data during both the daily highlights as well as the previews exploring what to watch out in the run-up to the event.  You can find all those reviews here.

There are always some surprises in store, however, both good and bad.  There’s also layers of obfuscation going on to consider in the form of cheerleading from companies, investigators, or stock holders, which may add positive spin on what is essentially so-so data, cases where great data goes largely ignored for whatever reason, or important lessons to be learned from failure.

In this wrap-up post, we take a sharp look at the ESMO20 winners, losers, and risers from a contrarian’s perspective…

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