→ Copen­hagen-based IO Biotech said that its can­cer vac­cine has passed the high bar set for its in­ter­im fu­til­i­ty analy­sis in Phase II, show­ing “a sub­stan­tial­ly high­er” over­all re­sponse rate among non-small cell lung can­cer pa­tients when com­bined to Keytru­da than the PD-1 alone —which ac­cord­ing to the com­pa­ny in­duced his­tor­i­cal ORR of 39%.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors will car­ry on eval­u­at­ing IO-102 plus Keytru­da, with fi­nal da­ta ex­pect­ed by the end of the year. The can­di­date is an IDO-de­rived pep­tide se­quence de­signed to stir up T cell ac­tion against IDO — the en­zyme tar­get for an ill-fat­ed class of small mol­e­cule drugs. “In that sense you have flags on the sur­face of im­mune sup­pres­sive cells and [tu­mor cells] that our T cells can rec­og­nize and there­by ac­tu­al­ly get rid of those IDO pos­i­tive cells, hence a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent MOA than IDO SMI,” CEO Mai-Britt Zoc­ca told End­points News.

IO Biotech is fund­ing the study while part­ner Mer­ck gets to share the re­sults. A cock­tail of IO102 and IO103 — which di­rects T cells against PD-L1 — is be­ing test­ed in com­bi­na­tion with Op­di­vo for melanoma pa­tients.

→ A month af­ter join­ing the hunt for an­ti­bod­ies that could treat Covid-19, Vir Biotech­nol­o­gy is en­list­ing WuXi Bi­o­log­ics to do the cell-line de­vel­op­ment, process and for­mu­la­tion de­vel­op­ment as well as ini­tial man­u­fac­tur­ing. The San Fran­cis­co-based start­up said it’s iden­ti­fied a num­ber of mon­o­clon­al an­ti­bod­ies that bind to SARS-CoV-2, iso­lat­ed from in­di­vid­u­als who had sur­vived SARS. A deal with WuXi — which gives the pow­er­ful CRO rights to com­mer­cial­ize in Chi­na — po­si­tions them for quick ad­vance­ment, CEO George Scan­gos said.

→ As­traZeneca has di­vest­ed an­oth­er gas­troin­testi­nal drug, col­lect­ing $52.5 mil­lion up­front from Red­Hill Bio­phar­ma for par­tial rights to Movan­tik. The drug, which was orig­i­nal­ly de­vel­oped by Nek­tar Ther­a­peu­tics to treat opi­oid-in­duced con­sti­pa­tion, gen­er­at­ed US sales of $96 mil­lion last year (Dai­ichi Sankyo shares some of the prof­its). As­traZeneca will con­tin­ue to sup­ply the drug for a while.

→ Parisian biotech Sci­pio bio­science, which helps re­search and clin­i­cal labs with sin­gle-cell se­quenc­ing, has se­cured €6 mil­lion in Se­ries A fund­ing. The mon­ey will fu­el the fi­nal de­vel­op­ment of its sin­gle-cell RNA-se­quenc­ing kit, as well as mar­ket­ing and busi­ness de­vel­op­ment ef­forts to pre­pare for com­mer­cial launch in 2022.

With just days before President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 booster rollout is set to go into effect, an FDA advisory committee appeared on the verge of not recommending boosters for anyone in the US before a last-minute change of wording laid the groundwork for older adults to have access to a third dose.

The FDA’s adcomm on Vaccines and Related Biological Products (VRBPAC) roundly rejected Pfizer/BioNTech booster shots for all individuals older than 16 by a 16-2 vote Friday afternoon. Soon after, however, the agency posed committee members a new question limiting booster use to the 65-and-older population and individuals at high risk of disease due to occupational exposure or comorbidities.

AstraZeneca and Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo think they’ve struck gold with their next-gen ADC drug Enhertu, which has shown some striking data in late-stage breast cancer trials and early solid tumor tests. Getting into earlier patients is now the goal, starting with Enhertu’s complete walkover of a Roche drug in second-line breast cancer revealed Saturday.

Enhertu cut the risk of disease progression or death by a whopping 72% (p=<0.0001) compared with Roche’s ADC Kadcyla in second-line unresectable and/or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer patients who had previously undergone treatment with a Herceptin-chemo combo, according to interim data from the Phase III DESTINY-Breast03 head-to-head study presented at this weekend’s #ESMO21.

In recent months, the battle for PD-(L)1 dominance has spilled over into early cancer with Merck’s Keytruda and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Opdivo all alone on the front lines. Keytruda now has another shell in its bandolier, and it could spell a quick approval.

Keytruda cut the risk of relapse or death by 35% over placebo (p=0.00658) in high-risk, stage 2 melanoma patients who had previously undergone surgery to remove their tumors, according to full data from the Phase III KEYNOTE-716 presented Saturday at #ESMO21.

Merck has worked hard to bring its I/O blockbuster Keytruda into earlier and earlier lines of therapy, and now the wonder drug appears poised to make a quick entry into early advanced cervical cancer.

A combination of Keytruda and chemotherapy with or without Roche’s Avastin cut the risk of death by 33% over chemo with or without Avastin (p=<0.001) in first-line patients with persistent, recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer, according to full data from the Phase III KEYNOTE-826 study presented Saturday at #ESMO21.

Tobacco giant Philip Morris now has crossed the 50% threshold it needs for shareholder backing for its controversial, $1.5 billion takeover of asthma inhaler maker Vectura.

Investors have accepted a $2.28-per-share offer from the company behind Marlboro cigarettes, according to Sky News — and those investors represent nearly 75% of the company’s shares.

Acquiring the British inhaler maker is only a part of Philip Morris’ long term plan to develop “smoke-free” products, with a desire to ultimately become a “broader healthcare and wellness” company.