Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘Novartis’

Molecular Jiu-Jitsu – Turning Cancer’s Mistakes Against Itself

What’s emerging next from the AACR box?

Synthetic lethality has always seemed a great idea on paper, yet the very nature of tumour complexity has frequently hampered our efforts to make the most of the scientific premise.

There’s a new kid on the block now with an altogether much clearer proposition on offer.

There are also several of these compounds already in the clinic with a raft of others pursuing them in preclinical development.

What’s not to like?

In our second major update on this class of agents, today’s story takes a look at where we are, what’s coming up, and where we’re headed in the context of what needs to be accomplished…

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Dark side of the moon

Image credit: kevron2002

Every time a new class of agents emerges in oncology, I’m reminded of a partial solar eclipse where there’s just enough sunshine to offer some promise or hope, which needs to be balanced with the much larger area of darkness visible to the naked eye.

This darkness can take many forms from tolerability and a narrow therapeutic window to lack of clinical activity.

In the beginning it’s always hard to see the wood from the trees and often there is more conflicting information available than congruence, at least until things shake out more clearly.

There’s also the tricky matter of cross pathway interactions and how they can influence the broader picture in hidden and obvious ways.

As we head into AACR in a few weeks time, this is a good opportunity to take stock on the various landscape changes and put the situation into perspective.

In this review we look at ten key areas and break down what’s known, what’s not known, and how some of the future directions may take shape…

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Kicking ADCs up a notch

Orchid at Vizcaya Museum in Miami – always thought they looked like chemical structures showing us the gaps!

We highlighted a number of different types of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) recently – yes, there’s much more to this category than simply dropping a chemo cargo on cancer cells!

In this review, we explore one of those flexible functionalities in more depth.

The cool thing about having an antibody base is creative chemists can bolt different things onto them, depending on what their goal is.

There are some really cool technology ideas being explored in research right now, which may improve not only what we can do with ADCs but also another modality.

If we think of the ADC as a modern day Trojan Horse to hide or mask the real payload in some way, the possibilities become limited only by our imagination.

The good news is there’s more than one example of this new genre to explore…

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Key oncology take aways and insights from Days 1 and 2 at JPM24

All aboard the San Francisco Milan Trolley!

With a number of oncology companies facing substantial loss of exclusivity (LOE) over the next five year strategic review period, we look at who’s at risk, how are they making up the gaps, how convincing are their arguments?  Will the flurry of acquisitions and collaborations announced over the last few months and even days make a difference?

In this series of quick reviews we offer our take aways and insights on what’s happening and whether or not they stand up to scrutiny.

Spoiler alert: some do, others do not!

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Wielding AI’s power for scientific good

Protein structure Source: Generate Biomedicine

With the incredibly rapid advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) models of late there is growing potential for an exponential impact on R&D, especially in the field of oncology.

While some observers may well be sceptical or wary, there are ways we can use these tools for greater scientific good by generating better, smarter drug designs rather than just mere productivity gains.

As more companies are exploring difficult or intractable targets, the need for enhanced computational power is increasing.

In our latest post, we combine some amazing discovery findings from the upcoming American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting with a story around the evolution of computational models and how they can help some brave companies and researchers develop new medicines with a difference rather than yet another me-too drug.

Are you ready for a tempestuous revolution rather than a slow paced evolution?

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Wrestling an intractable cancer target into submission

Santa Fe, NM

When it comes to intractable or tricky to drug targets, I’ve always thought this is where companies should put their best people on these projects and give them space and creativity to come up with new solutions to an age old problem.

There is both beauty and opportunity in either being first or best to a previously untamed oncology niche.

Why chase the herd of me-toos when you can conquer what was previously considered impossible?

After all, this is where there is advantage to be gained, especially if you have a head start then it’s up to everyone else to define how they are different and better than the first to the frontier land.

In our latest review, we explore the fresh opportunities to be had for savvy companies who have created novel pipeline agents in an early, yet emerging niche…

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Unveiling the science behind a new IO strategy

Fall forest trail

Today is one of those ‘welcome to the frontier of cancer therapeutics, where innovation meets possibility’ moments.

In the realm of cutting-edge biotech, a new IO player has emerged from the north east, charting a course to change cancer treatment for the better.

This biotech company is navigating uncharted territory, exploring novel approaches to enhance T cell interactions, with a specific focus on overcoming T cell exhaustion – a common hurdle in advanced cancers which often limits our ability to mount a sustained immune response.

Who are they and what precisely are they doing differently?

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How bispecific antibodies are reshaping cancer treatment

Rolling into Madrid!

One of the challenges we are starting to see more attention on is what happens in later lines of treatment for advanced solid tumours, regardless of whether prior therapy involved chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or hormonal therapies.

How can we provide new options for treatment of refractory disease and help more people live longer?

Finding active drugs with both a reasonable safety profile and demonstrable solid activity in a situation with more complexity in terms of the underlying biology coupled with a much higher tumour burden has long been a challenge for many oncologists and companies.

In previous years we saw how poorly checkpoint inhibitors did in this setting compared to using them upfront and while chemotherapy is very effective at shrinking tumours, the effects are rarely long lasting.

What’s next then?

One approach involves bispecific antibodies where the tumour cells and T cells are literally dragged into closer proximity, enabling the serial killers to do their job more effectively.  They worked rather nicely in blood cancers, so why not in solid tumours?

After nearly a decade of trying out many permutations of this approach, we are finally starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel with several different agents in diverse tumour types…

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AACR23 Preview 5 – an emerging landscape

Bridge over troubled waters or time to lay down?

In our latest preview, we’re taking a look at a pathway previously thought to be ‘undruggable’ – an awful term we increasingly should think carefully about using given it may only reflect the limitations of current science.

As we’ve seen with KRAS – and this piece is not about that pathway – innovative science can quickly turn the ‘undruggable’ into something much more ‘tractable’ with the right agents.

In our latest post we’re looking at the emerging landscape for a class of new agents in early development we expect to hear more about at the AACR23 annual meeting in Orlando.

Which companies will be the winners and losers is too early to tell, but much like crossing the bridge in Iwakuni, are you better off staying with the group, or taking an entirely different route to success?

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An unexpected renaissance

Rotterdam, Feb 2023

With so much focus on T cell fitness and exhaustion of late I wanted to highlight an area in the CAR-T cell space, which was all the rage a decade ago then quietly fizzled somewhat, leading many observers to wonder if it was great in theory, but not so much in practice.

This subniche is going through a renaissance of sorts as more research is conducted and we learn enough from the experiments and past mistakes to start moving forward again.

In this post, we’re gimng to focus exclusively on one of these aspects and see what’s new and where things might be headed because this isn’t an isolated incident…

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