This week's Lab Notes has items on a $37 million agreement between a cell therapy developer and a Big Pharma company, a $5 million equity financing deal, the sudden loss of a Bucks County biopharmaceutical company's chief medical officer and more.
Here's the roundup:
AdaptImmune Therapeutics
The T-cell therapy company with operations in Philadelphia and Oxford, England, has entered into a "transition agreement" with GlaxoSmithKline under which Adaptimmune will get back the rights and materials comprised within the PRAME and NY-ESO cell therapy programs that were previously the subject of a co-development deal.
Under the terms of the deal, Adaptimmune (NASDAQ: ADAP) will receive an upfront payment plus milestone-based payments totaling $37.4 million.
Dr. Helen Tayton-Martin, Adaptimmune's chief business and strategy officer, said the return of the T-cell programs will bolster the company's pipeline and its standing in the field of engineered TCR T-cells for treating solid tumors.
"As we have outlined in our focus areas for 2023, we are especially eager to continue development of the PRAME asset," she said. "It is a highly expressed and validated target across a broad range of solid tumor cancers."
Tayton-Martin said the company will continue to evaluate the emerging data for the NY-ESO asset to determine next steps."
Geneos Therapeutics
The Plymouth Meeting biopharmaceutical company developing personalized therapeutic cancer vaccines raised $5 million in an equity financing deal.
The Series A3 round was led by the 3B Future Health Fund. Dr. Roberto DePonti, managing director and general partner at 3B, has joined Geneos as a board observer.
The company plans to use proceeds to fund the expansion of its phase 1b/2a clinical trial testing its experimental cancer treatment, GNO2-PVO2, in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab, in patients with unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma, a common type of liver cancer.
Geneos, which previously reported data from studies involving 24 patients, expects to have results from a full cohort of 36 patients later this year. Spun out of Inovio (NASDAQ: INO) in 2016, Geneos is led by Niranjan Sardesai, the company's president and CEO.
Onconova Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ONTX)
The Newtown biopharmaceutical company announced the unexpected passing of its chief medical officer Dr. Mark Gelder at the age of 64.
“The entire Onconova family is deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved friend and colleague,” said Dr. Steven M. Fruchtman, CEO of Onconova, in a statement. “Dr. Gelder dedicated his career to caring for and improving the treatment options available to patients with cancer and his thought leadership and scientific passion will be sorely missed by the oncology community. Mark trained and worked as a GYN oncologist. Because of that experience, he was dedicated to advancing the care of women with reproductive tract cancers. Our goal is to complete the mission Mark started by advancing our trial in endometrial cancer and other cancers as well. We are immensely grateful for his many contributions to Onconova and express our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues during this difficult time. May he rest in peace.”
Gelder joined Onconova during the summer of 2021. He was CMO at Elevar Therapeutics, Pierian Biosciences, Accelovance Inc., and Heron Therapeutics. Earlier in his career he worked at several large pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Wyeth and Bayer.
Dr. Michael Saunders has been appointed the interim-CMO of the company while a search for Gelder's successor is conducted.
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Researchers at the pediatric medical center announced a discovery showing a regulatory class of human T cells descends from two different origins, one that relates to autoimmunity and one that relates to protective immunity.
CHOP said the findings, published in journal Science Immunology, could pave the way for new treatments for autoimmune diseases that target the immune system selectively.
"When it comes to autoimmunity, the prevailing wisdom has been that the only way to stop inflammation is to suppress the immune system broadly, making patients more susceptible to infection," said Dr. Neil D. Romberg, an attending physician in the division of allergy and immunology at CHOP and the senior author of the study. "However, that is only true if all T cells come from the same place. What this study shows is that there are two different T cell lineages, which means you might be able to have your cake and eat it too — suppressing inflammation due to autoimmunity while allowing T cells that fight infection to thrive."
Quick Hits
West Chester-based Verrica Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VRCA) said the first patient has been dosed in the second part of a phase 2 study evaluating VP-315, its experimental treatment of a type of skin cancer known as basal cell carcinoma. In the first part, according to Verrica CEO Ted White, the new drug candidate demonstrated favorable safety and tolerability profiles, and "clinical evidence of activity" in patients who received a higher dose range. The third part of the study, the company said, is expected to start in the first half of 2024.… AnPac Bio-Medical Science Co. (NASDAQ: ANPC), a cancer screening products company that has offices in Spring House and China, raised $3 million through a direct stock offering. The company plans to use the net proceeds from the offering to advance its research and development activities and for working capital and general corporate purposes.
