This week's Lab Notes has reports on a cancer research collaboration, a biotech startup's multimillion-dollar seed funding round, a local firm's investment in a virtual contract research organization and more.
Here's the roundup:
Fox Chase Cancer Center
The Philadelphia cancer hospital and research institution, along with the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in Miami, has entered into a collaboration with Pfizer’s Institute of Translational Equitable Medicine to launch a cancer genomics study.
The study will seek to characterize novel genetic drivers of cancer disparities in African ancestry populations.
The collaboration will leverage the African Caribbean Cancer Consortium, a multi-institutional and transcontinental network of scientists, oncologists, and health professionals focused on understanding cancer risk and outcomes among people of African ancestry.
The study will include cancer patients from Fox Chase Cancer Center, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, the University of Alabama, Georgia's Augusta University in collaboration with Maryland's Morgan State University, as well as nine international consortium research sites in the Bahamas, Barbados, Benin, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Namibia, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The long-term goal of the study is to create a cancer genome registry of ethnically diverse patients designed to expand existing resources and advance health equity through genomics, molecular epidemiology, and social determinants of health research in African ancestry oncology patients.
“This registry will allow us to conduct studies that will add to the limited available data for Blacks, including genetics, genomics and gene-environment interaction studies that will help to fill specific knowledge gaps in the literature addressing aggressive disease in African ancestry cancer patients,” said Camille Ragin, associate director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Fox Chase and the founder of the African Caribbean Cancer Consortium.
Avstera Therapeutics
The Philadelphia biotechnology company raised $4.55 million in a seed funding round.
The company, founded by Karthik Musunuri and Ajay Raju, plans to use the proceeds to advance its development of new treatments for cancer patients with solid tumors.
"Tumor associated macrophages account for up to 50% or more of the cell mass of solid neoplasms (a characteristic of cancer that results in abnormal growth of tissue in some part of the body)," said Musunuri, who is also Avstera's CEO and the son of Ocugen CEO Shankar Musunuri. "Our lead programs are geared towards new understanding that macrophage differentiation is a critical piece in maintaining overall anti-tumoral responses and stabilizing the tumor microenvironment."
Macrophages are a type of white blood cell that typically surrounds and kills microorganisms, removes dead cells, and stimulates the action of other immune system cells, but they can also support tumor growth and survival of malignant cells.
Avstera — which has collaborations with leading investigators from Georgetown University and the University of Pennsylvania — intends to file an investigational new drug application with the Food and Drug Administration for AVS100, its new drug candidate targeting melanoma, by the end of next year. If the application is approved, the company can proceed with human testing of the therapy.
AVS100 was granted Orphan Drug Designation by the FDA this week. The designation awarded to certain experimental therapies targeting rare diseases provides the company with a variety of benefits including a seven-year period of U.S. marketing exclusivity if the drug is approved, tax credits for clinical research costs, clinical research trial design assistance, the ability to apply for annual grant funding and waiver of Prescription Drug User Fee Act filing fees.
Osage Venture Partners
The Bala Cynwyd venture capital firm led a $5 million Series A funding round for Curavit Clinical Research, a Boston-based virtual contract research organization that specializes in decentralized clinical trials.
The company plans to use the funding to accelerate its growing portfolio of research in the global digital therapeutics market. Royal Street Ventures and Narrow Gauge Ventures also participated in the funding round.
Quick Hits
Chesterbrook-based Trevena (NASDAQ: TRVN) entered into a securities purchase agreement with a single institutional investor that is buying 2.6 million shares of common stock, and warrants to buy the same number of future shares, at a combined offering price of $3.06 per share. The warrants, which expire five years following the issuance date and will be exercisable immediately, have an exercise price of $2.95. The company plans to use the proceeds from the stock sale, estimated at about $8 million, for general corporate purposes.… Ayala Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AYLA), a biopharmaceutical company with operations in Israel and Wilmington, Delaware, said the first patient was dosed in Part B of its phase 3 clinical trial testing its new drug candidate AL102 in desmoid tumors. Desmoid tumors are rare connective tissue tumors that do not metastasize but often infiltrate vital organs and neurovascular structures, causing pain and organ dysfunction. The tumors typically arise in the upper and lower extremities, abdominal wall, head and neck area, mesenteric root, and chest wall with the potential to arise in additional parts of the body.… The European Commission granted orphan drug designation to Devon-based Zynerba Pharmaceuticals' (NASDAQ: ZYNE) new drug candidate Zygel, which contains the active ingredient cannabidiol, for the treatment of the chromosomal disorder 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.… West Chester-based Centinel Spine announced the first implantation of its Prodisc C SK cervical total disc replacement product that received FDA approval in July. The Prodisc C SK device features a flat endplate designed to optimize implant positioning that allows surgeons to address individual patient anatomy, and a low-profile central keel that provides immediate fixation and enables a streamlined keel preparation technique.
