Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘Lilly’

Scaling the ESMO23 ramparts

Scaling the ramparts in Real Madrido

In our last ESMO23 Preview ahead of the live meeting starting on Friday, we highlight another eight targets to watch out for where there will be intriguing data dropping out from Madrid over the weekend.

More than just the data though, is consideration for the implications of the findings and how they can impact a particular tumour landscape.

One thing to note is just because a company highlights what they consider to be positive data doesn’t always mean it is actually so when you look carefully at the small print.

Not surprisingly there are a few examples of this genre at the forthcoming conference…

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Update on the KRAS Runners and Riders

In Pharmaland it is frequently the case that once a target has been validated there’s always new developments in the form of novel agents that emerge, as well as emerging new related targets to consider.

Standing from the KRAS crowd

Here we combine an update on some new market entrants in the KRAS niche with an expert interview discussing how to address a known area of acquired resistance that has recently been highlighted.  Naturally, that also brings with it yet more novel targets and potential combination strategies that may need to be considered by players in this space.

Yes, KRAS G12C is now a rapidly evolving area with multiple players and many moving parts, whereas even just back in January this year many observers saw it as a three horse race – think again, it’s much deeper and broader than that somewhat naive hypothesis already!

As usual, we follow these races longitudinally with regular updates and explain why new scientific findings need to be considered if we are to make a difference in the clinic with future combination strategies.

Are you ready for the latest game of 3D chess?

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JPM19 Highlights from Day 1

Karl the Fog lifts in San Francisco

The annual JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco is upon us with a bunch of deals, acquisitions and mergers already announced ahead of the meeting with more today now the event has opened.

Some years this meeting sets the scene for a scintillating 12 months ahead for Pharmaland, other years it’s a damp squib highlighted by the fog and rain.

What will 2019 turn out to be? It’s too early to tell but there’s certainly some intriguing elements worthy of initial discussion and review.

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AACR 2017 Preview 7

The White House in spring, Washington DC

With spring in the air and the clock rapidly running down on the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Washington DC in just two weeks time, it’s time to take a look at the seventh topic in our Preview series.

What’s hot on deck to day?

With increasing competition in the metastatic breast cancer space, particularly in HR+ HER2- disease, it’s time to explore key issues around CDK4/6 inhibitors as there’s a lot going on here, including some important presentations ahead.

A road map of what to expect and what to watch out for is often valuable if you want to avoid surprises.

We also examine key issues the companies here are facing as well as highlighting emerging scientific and clinical data of note on several relevant fronts.

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Will nivolumab make an impact in gastric cancer?

San Francisco: A look at what’s new in gastric cancer (GC) from the 2017 ASCO GI meeting.

Day 1 of #GI17 is filling up…

There were several phase 3 trials presented in GC and gastro-esophageal junction (GEJ) carcinoma in both targeted therapies and immunotherapies this past weekend.

  • When we look carefully at the latest data, what do we find?
  • Where are the opportunities and challenges in this niche?

Another critical question that many observers will be interested in is…

Will BMS’s checkpoint inhibitor, nivolumab (Opdivo), overcome recent setbacks in lung cancer and make a mark in stomach cancer to challenge approved targeted therapies such as ramucirumab (Cyramza)?

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ESMO16 Gems from the Poster Halls Part 2

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.

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ESMO16 Preview 7 Key Trials in Breast Cancer

There was a time when it seemed that all the good news emerging in cancer research was on breast cancer, that is clearly no longer true as other tumour types have seen some leaps and bounds with different modalities, including areas previously thought to be a graveyard for big Pharma, such as metastatic melanoma, for example.

new-dawn-houses-of-parliament

New Dawn at the Houses of Parliament

That said, after the excellent developments in hormone-sensitive disease and the identification of the HER2 oncogene, we now have CDK4/6 as a validated target in metastatic breast cancer.

Pfizer’s palbociclib (Ibrance) lead the way, with two approvals in previously untreated and relapsed ER+ HER2- advanced breast cancer. Two other companies in this field are Novartis with ribociclib and Lilly with abemaciclib. Data is being presented on all three therapies at ESMO this year.

In addition, there are some other abstracts of note that are well worth discussing.

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ESMO16 Preview on Late Breaking Abstracts in Lung Cancer

The 2016 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) is fast approaching. It takes place next month from October 7th to 11th and we will be on site covering the meeting for Biotech Strategy Blog. We’re looking forward to a great meeting!

ESMO 2016 CongressIf you are sitting on the fence as to whether you should go to Copenhagen, then hopefully our series of Previews will help you decide.

Be warned that accommodation is in already in short supply and ESMO are now putting people up across the Oresund bridge in Malmo, Sweden.

The Congress App has a lot of useful information and is well worth downloading, if you haven’t done so already.

Last week many of the late breaking abstract (LBA) titles were announced, although there are still some placeholders. While we won’t know the actual late-breaking data until the meeting, the LBA titles offer insights into what will be presented in Copenhagen.

In the second in our ESMO 2016 Preview series, we’re highlighting the lung cancer late breakers that we’re looking forward to hearing, providing some background on why they may be of interest, and a look at how some of subset landscapes may be a-changing in the future.

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Gems from the AACR Poster Hall – Part 2

If you had told me several weeks ago that we would write over 28 posts on #AACR16 and become very interested in mouse models, then most likely I would have laughed out loud and told you not to be so ridiculous!  Here we are with the 29th one and, another, on the bromododomain landscape yet to go.  Such was the vast richness of data and concepts being discussed or presented in New Orleans for those who chose to look.

Today, I want to start the segue from AACR to ASCO coverage.

Nawlins MGRAS FIOne way to do that is through the second part of the Gems from the Post Hall series. This latest one looks at a range of intriguing new targeted therapies and novel targets that are emerging, including a pharma company with a particularly interesting early pipeline.

Several pharma companies presented interesting data on their very early compounds currently in development, plus I noticed a trend for a new class of targeted therapies to emerge, MNK inhibitors, which we will also discuss.

Companies mentioned: Bayer, Orion Pharma, Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Agios.

Targets mentioned: PI3K, CDK, Akt, TWEAK, FGFR, BUB1, IDH1, SMYD2, MNK

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Highlights of #JPM16 Healthcare Conference Day 2

San Francisco JPM16 Day 2It’s Tuesday at the 2016 JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco (Twitter #JPM16).

Each day of #JPM16 we’re doing a rolling blog post which we’re updating throughout the day with commentary and insights on the company presentations we’re covering.

While we’re not giving a blow-by-blow account, many companies have the slides readily available, we will be commenting on noteworthy news, and what we learn about corporate strategy going into 2016.

For those of you who like to catch up with the final summary of each day’s highlights, you can read yesterday’s Day 1 synopsis here and our interview with Seattle Genetics CEO, Clay Siegall here.

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