Drug Discovery World

MARCH 29, 2024

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has approved Vyloy (zolbetuximab), an anti-claudin 18.2 (CLDN18.2) monoclonal antibody for patients with CLDN18.2 positive, unresectable, advanced or recurrent gastric cancer. Vyloy is the first and only CLDN18.2-targeted therapy approved by any regulatory agency in the world. Gastric cancer is the third deadliest cancer in Japan, with 126,724 cases diagnosed in 2022.

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Drug Discovery World

MARCH 28, 2024

Bio-Rad Laboratories has launched validated antibodies for rare cell and circulating tumour cell (CTC) enumeration for use with Bio-Rad’s Celselect Slides Enumeration Stain Kits. The antibodies are specific to CTC surface markers to enable the sensitive and specific identification of target cell populations, enhancing the study of tumour heterogeneity and disease progression at various stages.

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Drug Discovery World

MARCH 28, 2024

This 24-page eBook sponsored by Sino Biological explores the latest innovations in cancer therapeutics and where we can expect the greatest breakthroughs in the future. Download this exclusive eBook to learn more about: The opportunities and advances in cancer research Why liquid biopsies are important in precision medicine trials for cancer How genetic tuning will transform the reach for CAR-T therapies The latest developments in breast cancer therapy The post Breakthroughs in oncology research

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Drug Discovery World

MARCH 26, 2024

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorisation (EUA) to half-life extended monoclonal antibody (mAb) Pemgarda (pemivibart, or VYD222) for the pre-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) of Covid-19. It is approved in adults and adolescents (12 years of age and older weighing at least 40kg) who are moderate-to-severely immune compromised due to certain medical conditions or receipt of certain immunosuppressive medications or treatments and are unlikely to mount an ade

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Drug Discovery World

MARCH 26, 2024

DDW’s Megan Thomas caught up with Oliver Rausch, Chief Scientific Officer at Storm Therapeutics, following the ESMO Targeted Anticancer Therapies Congress 2024, a global meeting focusing on promising new anticancer targets and agents, focusing on those in early phase clinical development. Rausch gave an update on the latest developments from the conference and scientific findings the company presented at the meeting.

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Drug Discovery World

MARCH 26, 2024

Join DDW and Revvity Signals for this free event ‘ Enhancing collaboration between sponsors and contract partners in drug discovery ’. The event will take place on 23 April at 4pm BST / 5pm CEST / 11am EDT / 8am PDT. Most contemporary drug discovery companies (sponsors) outsource some (or all) drug development to external contract partners, e.g. Contract Research Organisations (CROs) and/or Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisations (CDMOs).

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Drug Discovery World

MARCH 26, 2024

Created by DDW and sponsored by HUB Organoids, ‘ Oncology research: Where are the breakthroughs and innovation?’ is a free In Focus report now available to download. Oncology represents the drug discovery and development sector’s biggest focus area and whilst novel treatments continue to emerge – immunotherapies, personalised medicine, antibody therapies to name a few – cancer is still a leading cause of death and its mechanisms of resistance to drugs remains an ongoing scientific challenge.

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Drug Discovery World

MARCH 11, 2024

Researchers from Japan have used CRISPR gene editing to enhance the effectiveness of rejuvenated cytotoxic T lymphocytes (rejTs) for targeted immunotherapy. RejTs constitute a promising approach for treating cervical cancer, though rejection by the host’s immune system is a major hurdle. In a recent study, researchers from Japan demonstrated how gene-edited rejTs can enable them to evade cytotoxic T cells and natural killer cells while also exhibiting enhanced anti-tumour activity.

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Drug Discovery World

MARCH 7, 2024

Biotechnology company Akari Therapeutics and biopharmaceutical company Peak Bio have announced a definitive agreement to merge as equals in an all-stock transaction. The combined entity will operate as Akari Therapeutics, which is expected to continue to be listed and trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market as AKTX. Following closing, the company will have an expanded pipeline that contains multiple assets spanning early and late development stages.

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Drug Discovery World

MARCH 7, 2024

Join DDW and Cresset for this free event ‘ Enhancing collaboration in drug discovery – a biotech perspective ’. The event will take place on 28 March at 2pm GMT / 3pm CET / 9am EST / 6am PST. Delivery of synthesis targets within small molecule drug discovery often involves many chemists and other collaborators, both internal and external, across multiple locations.

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Drug Discovery World

MARCH 1, 2024

News round-up for 26 Feb – 1 March by DDW Digital Content Editor Diana Spencer. The news highlights this week all focus on regulatory decisions, both positive and negative. The first therapy was approved for allergic reactions to food, a drug for scleroderma secured Fast Track Designation, and the CHMP recommended an extension to the use of Carvykti in melanoma, but there was also bad news for Minerva Biosciences and Oncopeptides.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

A team from Aston University and the University of Warwick has secured a £1.8 ($2.2) million grant to engineer microbial cell factories to produce membrane proteins which will support future drug screening and sustainable chemical production. The Engineering Biology Mission Award was given by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Membrane proteins are crucial molecules on the surface of cells with numerous biological functions, such as sensing hormones or cell communication.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Arvinas and Pfizer’s vepdegestrant (ARV-471) has received Fast Track Designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer. Vepdegestrant is an investigational PROteolysis Targeting Chimera (PROTAC) protein degrader designed to target and degrade the estrogen receptor (ER) protein.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

A therapeutic candidate which operates through a novel mRNA biology mechanism of action could open new avenues for treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients. Anima Biotech has identified a preclinical candidate, effectively disrupting the transformation of fibroblasts into fully differentiated myofibroblasts. By inhibiting myofibroblasts’ deposition of extracellular matrix, the candidate demonstrates substantial potential in mitigating fibrotic diseases.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Dr Pandora Pound , Fellow Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics explores the hinderances of animal testing in pharma and why new technologies such AI, genomics and synthetic biology c an further drug development. There was great fanfare recently for a new Alzheimer’s drug, lecanemab (brand name Leqembi), which was shown in a trial to reduce the rate of cognitive decline in people with mild impairment.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

For this year’s SLAS2024 conference in Boston (which takes place 3-7 February), DDW’s Megan Thomas narrates articles from the DDW SLAS2024 supplement as part of the DDW Events podcast series. This is episode three, The building blocks of AI success stories. Erin Welsh, PhD, is a disease ecologist and epidemiologist now working full-time as a science communicator.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

For this year’s SLAS2024 conference in Boston (which takes place 3-7 February), DDW’s Megan Thomas narrates articles from the DDW SLAS2024 supplement as part of the DDW Events podcast series. This is episode three, The building blocks of AI success stories. Erin Welsh, PhD, is a disease ecologist and epidemiologist now working full-time as a science communicator.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Scientific sessions Tuesday’s presentations spanned a range of topics, including functional genomics for target identification, next-generation proteomics, self-driving laboratories, the future of cell culture, and ‘lab on a particle’ technology. There were some great talks on the DDW-hosted Ignite Theater track, co-sponsored by Hamamatsu Corporation and Integra Life Sciences.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

News round-up for 29 January – 2 February by DDW Digital Content Editor Diana Spencer. Sunday 4 February is World Cancer Day, an international awareness day led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), so the round-up this week will focus on oncology, including the UK approval of a rare blood cancer drug and a novel production process for CAR-T therapies.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

For this year’s SLAS2024 conference in Boston (which takes place 3-7 February), DDW’s Megan Thomas narrates articles from the DDW SLAS2024 supplement as part of the DDW Events podcast series. This is episode one, called, “A welcome to SLAS 2024”, which includes two comment pieces. Thomas wrote the first one, The journey from lab to patient , which focuses on the theme of the track curated by DDW taking place in the Ignite Theater at SLAS 2024.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

For this year’s SLAS2024 conference in Boston (which takes place 3-7 February), DDW’s Megan Thomas narrates articles from the DDW SLAS2024 supplement as part of the DDW Events podcast series. This is episode one, called, “A welcome to SLAS 2024”, which includes two comment pieces. Thomas wrote the first one, The journey from lab to patient , which focuses on the theme of the track curated by DDW taking place in the Ignite Theater at SLAS 2024.

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Drug Discovery World

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

NeoPhore has announced a further extension of £9.6 million (approximately $12.2 million) to its Series B financing round, bringing the total raised to £31.1 million (approximately $39.5 million). The company is building a pipeline of small molecule drugs targeting novel proteins across the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathway to generate next-generation immuno-oncology therapeutics to improve clinical outcomes for cancer patients.

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Drug Discovery World

JANUARY 24, 2024

Three different HIV antibodies each independently protected monkeys from acquiring simian-HIV (SHIV) in a placebo-controlled proof-of-concept study intended to inform development of a preventive HIV vaccine for people. The antibodies – a human broadly neutralsing antibody and two antibodies isolated from previously vaccinated monkeys – target the fusion peptide, a site on an HIV surface protein that helps the virus fuse with and enter cells.

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Drug Discovery World

JANUARY 24, 2024

Oxitope Pharma and Arxx Therapeutics, companies with a shared goal of leveraging the innate immune system to discover and develop disease modulating therapies, has announced their merger to form Calluna Pharma. Calluna has raised €75 million in a series A financing and is backed by Oxitope and Arxx’s existing lead investors, Forbion, Sarsia, p53, and Investinor.

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Drug Discovery World

JANUARY 19, 2024

News round-up for 15-19 January by DDW Digital Content Editor Diana Spencer. With seasonal illnesses running amok in the western hemisphere at the moment, it is perhaps not surprising that this week’s news highlights focus on viruses and immunity. The top stories: Antibody cocktail effective against emerging Covid-19 variants Biotech company ExeVir Bio has revealed new data demonstrating that its antibodies are effective in neutralising currently circulating Covid-19 Omicron variants.

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Drug Discovery World

JANUARY 10, 2024

The biotech market is heading to recovery in 2024, following a marked downturn in investment in 2022 and 2023, according to healthcare industry professionals. A GlobalData survey ‘The State of the Biopharmaceutical Industry 2024’ found that more than 40% of the healthcare industry professionals surveyed globally expressed an optimistic or very optimistic sentiment on biotech funding starting to bounce back over the next 12 months.

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Drug Discovery World

JANUARY 10, 2024

New understanding of a gene that is linked to some forms of dementia and other age-related diseases gives scientists fresh hope that action can be taken against these diseases long before the onset of symptoms. The gene – called Angiogenin or ANG – is associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases commonly associated with old age, including frontotemporal dementia (FTD), motor neurone disease (MND) and Parkinson’s disease.

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Drug Discovery World

DECEMBER 14, 2023

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) has published five policy recommendations to address the challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) in life sciences. The Bio X AI policy recommendations address the need for oversight of biodesign AI tools, biosecurity screening of synthetic DNA and guidance on biosecurity practices for automated laboratories.

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Drug Discovery World

DECEMBER 14, 2023

With leading academic institutions and significant recent investment, Glasgow is shaping up to be an important centre for drug discovery and development in the UK. DDW’s Diana Spencer explores the city’s unique ecosystem. In early December 2023, the University of Glasgow announced plans to construct a new Health Innovation Hub in Govan in Glasgow. The new centre represents a flagship investment within the University’s Glasgow Riverside Innovation District (GRID) and will be home to commercial bu

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Drug Discovery World

DECEMBER 14, 2023

A number of companies presented breakthrough data for their investigational breast cancer drugs at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Antibody drug conjugate MBRC-101 MBrace Therapeutics presented preclinical data demonstrating the potential of its novel antibody drug conjugate MBRC-101 for the treatment of solid tumours including hormone receptor-positive (HR+) and triple negative breast cancers.

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Drug Discovery World

DECEMBER 14, 2023

The University College London (UCL) has entered into a partnership with ViroCell Biologics to advance Professor Persis Amrolia’s innovative chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for relapsed paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Dr Amrolia is Professor of Transplantation Immunology at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and an international leader in CAR T-cell therapy for paediatric ALL, and ViroCell Biologics is a specialist viral vector CDMO for cell an

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Drug Discovery World

DECEMBER 14, 2023

The latest sponsored DDW Sitting Down With podcast features Charles Powell, CEO of Aurora Microplates, discussing how the microplate has evolved to keep up with changing trends within research and development. The microplate is a seemingly simple tool, yet it has a crucial role to play in ensuring accurate data throughout the drug discovery process.

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Drug Discovery World

DECEMBER 14, 2023

The latest sponsored DDW Sitting Down With podcast is now available. It features Charles Powell, CEO of Aurora Microplates, discussing how the Aurora microplate has evolved to keep up with changing trends within research and development. The microplate is a seemingly simple tool, yet it has a crucial role to play in ensuring accurate data throughout the drug discovery process.

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Drug Discovery World

DECEMBER 1, 2023

SpringWorks Therapeutics’ Ogsiveo (nirogacestat) has become the first drug to be approved for desmoid tumours in the US, following the go-ahead from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Desmoid tumours are non-cancerous but can be locally aggressive. Although surgical removal has historically been the treatment of choice, there is a high risk that the tumour will return or that other health challenges will occur after removal.

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Drug Discovery World

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Keep up to speed with the sector’s top executive appointments with DDW’s regular recruitment round-up. Kimryn Rathmell has been chosen as the 17 th director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), bringing her experience as leader of the Department of Medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Physician-in-Chief at the Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital and Clinics.

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Drug Discovery World

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

DDW’s Megan Thomas attended PEGS Europe 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal, from Tuesday 14 November to Thursday 16 November 2023. Here, she shares insight from the annual biologics technology meeting. Scientific tracks and presentations Antibody-based cancer therapies The first presentation attended in the antibody-based cancer therapies track, within the antibody drug conjugate (ADC) session, was called: ‘A new era of single-cell functional profiling for drug discovery’, presented by Kathrin Herb

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Drug Discovery World

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

This is the latest episode of the free DDW narrated podcast, “Outside the box thinking for drug discovery success”, which covers three written for Volume 23 – Issue 4, Fall 2022 of DDW. They are called: Stanford researchers construct the most complete synthetic microbiome , Highs and lows of drug repurposing , and Unlocking the potential of mucoadhesive drug delivery.

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