It is a not uncommon phenomenon for a new discovery to attract much enthusiasm and hype — as well as investment and new company formation — only to suffer popular disillusionment a few years later as public interest turns to the next hot area of science when clinical success remains elusive and far off. After...
The news from ESMO in September once again has highlighted the utility and need for biomarkers to help determine not only who will likely benefit from a particular immuno-oncology (IO) treatment, but also who may require a combination of such therapies right from the start. While higher levels of PD-L1 have generally correlated with...
Late August and early September was a period of big news — both positive and negative — on the CAR-T front. On the positive side, Novartis’ received the first FDA approval of a CAR-T therapy for Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), for the treatment of children and young adults with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia that is refractory...
In July, we attended the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London. The big news at the meeting was on the diagnostics front. In the aftermath of the recent string of trial failures, diagnostic tools have become a critical area of focus, in the hopes that patient diagnosis and selection can be improved. Accurately diagnosing...
On July 27, AstraZeneca (AZ) disappointed their investors and many immuno-oncology watchers with the results of their MYSTIC trial combining two immunotherapies targeting PD-L1 (durvalumab/Imfinzi) and CTLA-4 (tremelimumab) in newly diagnosed Stage-IV lung cancer patients. The AZ combination therapy failed to show a benefit compared to chemotherapy in a primary endpoint of “Progression-free Survival (PFS).”...
On July 12, Novartis’ CAR-T therapy, CTL019 (tisagenlecleucel), received a unanimous recommendation for approval from the reviewing U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel for use in the treatment of children and young adults with advanced acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The FDA is now expected to make its final decision by October 3. CTL019...
New technologies tend to go through cycles of interest and attention. Initial excitement about the potential of a technological advance too often builds to over-blown hype, followed by a quick reversal of interest in the aftermath of a big disappointment. But if continued research later produces truly encouraging results, interest can build again as time...
Sometime mid-month, the first clinical trial employing CRISPR gene editing technology within the human body will initiate in China, at Sun-Yat Sen University. Scientists there will seek to use CRISPR and TALEN, another gene editing method, to treat persistent HPV infection and disable the tumor growth mechanism in infected cells. In a non-invasive approach, scientists...
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...
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...