June 2017 - Bionest

26

Jun 2017

Bionest

Liquid Biopsy – Looking Beyond EGFR

In April, two important reports were published — one in the New England Journal of Medicine, one in Nature — that added evidence in support of liquid biopsy as a means of monitoring for the recurrence of cancer and to predict a patient’s response to adjuvant therapy. Both studies were based on data from the...

20

Jun 2017

Bionest

ASCO 2017 — Some Take-Aways

Several members of the Bionest team attended ASCO this year — the biggest cancer conference in the world, attracting over 30,000 oncology researchers, biopharmaceutical executives, public health experts, investors and journalists. As we predicted in our pre-ASCO post, one of the biggest take-aways from the conference was the continued and ever-growing emphasis on combination...

14

Jun 2017

Bionest

Towards a Universal Immuno-oncology Assay Predictive of Drug Response

We have written frequently about the growing importance of biomarkers and how diagnostics will increasingly play a dominant role in the way that therapeutics are prescribed and reimbursed. Immuno-oncology (IO) treatments in particular are expected to benefit from the availability of truly predictive biomarkers, based on the dramatic treatment gains they have achieved for a...

6

Jun 2017

Bionest

Roche Gains Important MS Approval — and Takes Unprecedented Pricing Steps

On March 29, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Roche’s Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) for the treatment of either relapsing multiple sclerosis (MS), or primary progressive MS (PPMS). The approval was particularly noteworthy as Ocrevus is the first therapeutic approved for the treatment of PPMS, a form of the disease that accounts for 10-15% of MS...