Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘PVRIG’

On biomarkers and bispecifics

It’s lonely out there sometimes

Have you often wondered about the challenges of going into the unknown with phase 1 or even phase 3 trials for cancer?

Sometimes it seems like the summer crowds packing Bournemouth beach and you can’t find any space or place to sit, while others are more akin to the lonely buoy marking an empty beach.

Today’s oncology target has seen both extremes in its time with breathless hype followed by the depths of despair and lost interest from many of the madding crowds.

It’s still going though, with phase 3 readouts awaited and new competitors still entering the landscape.

There’s also some emerging science, including biomarker data to explore…

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Early stage oncology data of interest in TARGETS23 preview

Out with the old, in with the new

We’re reaching a turning point in oncology R&D.

More companies are looking to switch attention from classic, well established targets where there is so much competition it’s hard to differentiate to difficult, even intractable targets with significantly less competition.

To achieve this switch we need to find not only new targets, but also different modalities.

One way to go about bridging this switch is to develop molecular glues.

The magic of chemical induced proximity with this approach means there’s no linkerology involved, simplifying the design somewhat.

Here we look at what some companies are doing in this niche from targets to platforms and collaborations through to exploring what’s coming at the TARGETS meeting in Boston next month. There’s an added bonus included with some unexpected developments…

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Emerging biotechs and novel IO concepts to watch out for

There are plenty of innovative and creative ideas coming to the fore in oncology R&D of late, many of which are quite different twists on what we currently have available.

Early oncology development is rarely plain sailing – some fly like the wind, others fall over

As Dr Dan Chen of Engenuity noted in his talk in the SITC22 preconference session on lessons learned from IO combinations, if we want to cut to the chase when looking at emerging agents then we need to ask ourselves whether any of the concepts are seeking to address the limitations of the current products, particularly those associated with either primary or secondary immune escape.

After all, repeating the same old, same old is probably not going to move the needle in any meaningful way.

In thinking about which biotechs to pick for the annual SITC review, I also asked myself a couple of additional provocative questions – how are they distinguished from the competition, and in what way are they particularly compelling?

We’ll discuss these as we go through the selections, which includes both some solid developments as well as others we ought to be much more wary of offering too much hype over hope…

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SITC Preview 2 – a look at novel and emerging IO targets

After a couple of years in the doldrums with a bunch of negative phase 3 readouts, I thought this was a good opportunity to sit back and reflect on the next tranche of targets and see what we can learn about them.

The answers were quite surprising when you look at the group as a whole because not everything is about the PD(L)1 – CTLA4 axis, thank goodness.

In the latest preview we explore five different categories and highlight mostly early and novel developments coming along from early stage biotech companies, which may be of interest to our eager readers..

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Scores on the doors in the TIGIT niche

Which flavour of TIGIT will you choose?

The annual SITC meeting is coming up fast and it’s time for a new update on TIGIT since there are a raft of abstracts being presented in this niche, not to mention a variety of novel agents being developed from antibodies to bispecifics to fusion proteins in various shades as well as the potential for a number of diffferent combination partners.

With so many TIGIT flavours to choose from there’s plenty of new opportunities to explore and discuss…

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Every cloud has a silver lining

And we’re off!

Rays of hope during dark days

No, no, not to the races – and certainly not to Cheltenham – but rather it’s that time of the year when the first of our annual AACR Preview series drops.  While some cancer conferences have been postponed and even cancelled, others such as AACR and ASCO are proceeding with virtual meetings, proving that even dark times can offer hints of hope.

This is good news for both young researchers and companies alike in getting data out there and shared because life goes on as time and tide wait for no man.

The actual abstracts themselves won’t be revealed until later in the month on April 27th, but for now we get a taster of this year’s truncated event since the titles available for the first virtual meeting.

Often time, this glimpse is sufficient to garner some useful clues, so what does this year hold in store for us all?

This Preview series will be in multiple parts – a review of some of the key oral sessions from the first virtual program (targeted agents, immunotherapies, cell therapies, novel targets, translational studies etc) followed by a review of the posters in the final part.

To get started, let’s take a look at some of the important presentations we can expect to hear on the first day…

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