BioN­Tech founder­s' on­col­o­gy start­up rolls up its sec­ond PhI­II win for Astel­las

A can­cer drug from one of the pow­er cou­ples of biotech has snagged a win in its sec­ond Phase III study, open­ing up a straight lane to glob­al reg­u­la­to­ry agen­cies.

The drug is zol­be­tux­imab, which BioN­Tech founders Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türe­ci had launched in­to the clin­ic at their start­up Ganymed, well be­fore BioN­Tech achieved glob­al fame in mR­NA. Astel­las bought it out for $1.4 bil­lion in 2016 and now has a sol­id pack­age of in­for­ma­tion on its abil­i­ty to treat CLDN18.2-pos­i­tive, HER2-neg­a­tive cas­es of ad­vanced gas­tric can­cer when com­bined with chemo.

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