Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘Targeted Therapies’

AACR21 Preview 6 Exploring a novel and early target for cancer therapeutics

What stands out as a possible new cancer target to therapeutically drug?

Every year as part of our AACR Preview series, I pick a novel target to illustrate where innovative ideas are coming to the fore based on new and often early scientific evidence.

There is also the hope they might lead to future clinical drug development and emerging pipelines.

Some of these targets can turn out to be tough to drug for various reasons, including narrow therapeutic windows limiting the dosing schedule that can be realistically achieved (bromodomains come to mind), while others lead to some intriguing compounds which end up going further than expected.

Here’s the sixth article in this year’s series where we identify and discuss an early novel target of interest…

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If it’s Tuesday it must be Belgium

Today’s title refers a little tongue in cheek to an old Britishism in reference to a 1960s film about group travel of all things – in those days people apparently took bus tours to various places around Europe to see the sights, often with disastrous results or with comedic events ensuing…

For me, in the modern world the catchy phrase has always been about the transfer or shuttle day between different cities for cancer conferences – sometimes ASCO and EHA have been back to back, for example, while Tuesday is always the frantic shuttle day between ASH and SABCS for many.  At least this year with the virtual events there won’t be unexpected delays due to an ice storm in Dallas or some other vagary of inclement weather causing chaos!

As we straddle events between ASH and SABCS, not to mention ESMO IO coming up at the weekend, it’s time for some discussion around some emerging feel-good data to be greatly encouraged by, as well as a thought leader interview from a specialist in the TKI space.

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ESMO20 Preview 4 – Targeted therapies to watch out for

Not in Madrid – with the global pandemic continuing to exert a significant effect on the cancer conference season, the annual meetings continue apace virtually.

Plaza de Cibeles, Madrid

For this year’s ESMO meeting we have already covered immunotherapies, both early and late stage pipeline highlights and now it’s time to explore what to watch out for over the weekend on the early to mid stage targeted therapy front.

The good news is there is some potentially practice changing data being presented, as well as some novel approaches in preclinical development emerging. These should be hitting the clinic in the near to medium term future.  On the other extreme is the more common problem whereby a few agents are showing signs of not holding up to their early promise/hype.

Let’s now take a look at what we can learn in the fourth and final ESMO Preview for 2020…

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10 early phase ASH19 abstracts with a difference

ASH19 Targeted Therapies Preview: This year’s ASH in Orlando is very much dominated by new developments on the immunotherapy front in terms of both T and NK cell therapies, with some passing interest in BTK inhibitors as well.

It’s not always sunny in Florida…

What about targeted therapies and the science behind those developments?

It was not that long ago that these were the main lifeblood of the meeting across many, if not most, hematologic malignancies. How times have changed!

That said, outside of the CARs (T and NK cells), as well as bispecific immunotherapies, and BTK inhibitors there are still some gems to be found amongst the rest of the ASH19 abstracts.

Here we highlight an additional 10 abstracts involving early pipeline areas that encompass some novel targets, new combination approaches, or emerging science.

Please note that the novel targets can take the form of classic targets or IO ones since they didn’t fit in the prior ASH Preview topics already reviewed under separate cover…

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The Wisdom of Crowds

Atlanta – what’s exactly behind a poster board mobbing at AACR?

AACR19 Poster Hall

Is there some science or rationale behing the attention or is it something quite quirky and unexpected?

That was the critical question we wondered about as we traversed the poster hall sessions over the last few days and noticed the certain posters received more attention than others:

  • Why was this?
  • Is there a rhyme and reason to it?
  • Which ones were actually mobbed?
  • Is the attention justified?

If you’re curious like we were, then this is the post for you.

We highlight several posters from the AACR19 conference that received a noticeable amount of traffic and in future posts we will highlight those we consider to be gems from the poster halls and explain why, which… wasn’t necessarily quite the same thing (as being mobbed).

So without much ado, which ones were in the spotlight by AACR attendees this year?

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New developments in Prostate Cancer

At one point not too distant in the past, all the big news seemed to flow out of advanced prostate cancer with abiraterone and enzalutamide vying for attention, followed by occasional news on ARN–509, ODM–201, galeterone (remember that one from Tokai with all the AR-V7 kerfuffle?), radium Ra–223 dichloride, cabazitaxel, denosumab, ipilumumab, PROSTVAC, brachyury, and a few others. Predictably, not all were successful, and the count is still out on some.

San Francisco

In our latest conference coverage, we take a look at what we can learn from riding the prostate cancer train at ASCO GU ahead of the presentations in San Francisco tomorrow.

We will be updating this review as more data become available with the presentations, so do grab a cup of joe and settle down for some interesting reading ahead of time… this should get you all up to speed on the journey there!

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WCLC2018 Roundup of key lung cancer data

Toronto Skyline for WCLC

There’s a lot going on in lung cancer of late, especially with the World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) taking place in Toronto this week.

Following on from our recent preview, it’s time to take a look at the actual data presented and make an assessment on progress with both targeted and immunotherapies.

Here we offer some thoughts and insights on 16 key trials that were presented…

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What was old in cancer research is new again

While cancer immunotherapies are definitely becoming more de rigeur these days, that doesn’t mean that good old fashioned targeted therapies have been universally abandoned or forgotten, far from it.

Making strategic choices about how to differentiate targeted therapies is never easy

At recent meetings this year, my attention was caught by one target in particular, and despite its chequered history it seems to be making a comeback of sorts thanks to a more focused and tailored approach to therapy.

There is unlikely to be one panacea for everything, but what about going back to basics and matching patients to appropriate therapy based on the underlying biology and what the patiemt’s tumour is telling us? We should have more success doing that theoretically – is that actually the case in practice?

To illustrate this, we have a few examples to share from one particular niche in oncology that readers may find interesting and useful…

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Preview of WCLC 2018 – what’s new in lung cancer?

Picking out gems from the weeds

It’s time for a pre-meeting preview as we head into the busy Fall cancer conference season.

First up is the IASLC organised World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) being held in Toronto later this month.

We provide a review of some of the key abstracts and highlight some of the interesting topics to watch out for.

Updates will follow later once the data is presented as many of the abstracts are embargoed until the day of presentation.

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Fearful Symmetry

Palace guard in Stockholm

Stockholm, Sweden – The annual meeting of the European Hematology Association (EHA) is in full swing with updated data from two blue companies, Blueprint Medicines and bluebird bio of interest to BSB readers.

There is often beauty and simplicity to be found in nature that also applies to oncology R&D.

One of those aspects can be found in the concept of targeting particular aberrations or molecular rearrangements that driven oncogenic activity.  Once you connect the dots to arrive at these key targets, you can develop therapeutics that inhibit the activity, resulting in cessation or reduction in proliferation.

In our latest post, we focus on an update on Blueprint Medicine and take a look at their various programs in early clinical development, as they have quite a lot going on with multiple targeted compounds in different areas, including hematology.

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