Startup boasting ‘gobstopper-style’ vaccine delivery draws big partnerships — and backing from Adjuvant Capital

Glenn Rockman (Adjuvant Capital)

July 7, 2021 07:00 AM EDTUpdated 07:48 AM

Startup boasting 'gobstopper-style' vaccine delivery draws big partnerships — and backing from Adjuvant Capital

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

For as long as a prime-boost vaccine regimen — a model that’s been front and center in the fight against Covid-19 — has been deployed, scientists have been looking for ways to compress multiple doses into a single shot.

“Minimizing the touch points with patients is something that everyone’s always wanted,” said Glenn Rockman, managing partner and founder of public health-focused VC firm Adjuvant Capital.

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Adaptive Design Methods Offer Rapid, Seamless Transition Between Study Phases in Rare Cancer Trials

Rupa Doshi

Executive Director, Oncology Program Strategy

Rare cancers account for 22 percent of cancer diagnoses worldwide, yet there is no universally accepted definition for a “rare” cancer. Moreover, with the evolution of genomics and associated changes in categorizing tumors, some common cancers are now characterized into groups of rare cancers, each with a unique implication for patient management and therapy.

Adaptive designs, which allow for prospectively planned modifications to study design based on accumulating data from subjects in the trial, can be used to optimize rare oncology trials (see Figure 1). Adaptive design studies may include multiple cohorts and multiple tumor types. In addition, numerous adaptation methods may be used in a single trial and may facilitate a more rapid, seamless transition between study phases.

Matt Gline (L) and Pete Salzmann

August 2, 2021 07:30 AM EDTUpdated 09:13 AM

Deals

UPDATED: Roivant bumps stake in Immunovant with a $200M deal. But with M&A off the table, shares crater

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Roivant has worked out a deal to pick up a chunk of stock in its majority-owned sub Immunovant $IMVT, but the stock buy falls far short of its much-discussed thoughts about buying out all of the 43% of shares it doesn’t already own.

Roivant, which recently inked a SPAC move to the market at a $7 billion-plus valuation, has forged a deal to boost its ownership in Immunovant by 6.3 points, ending with 63.8% of the biotech’s stock following a $200 million injection. That cash will bolster Immunovant’s cash reserves, giving it a $600 million war chest to fund a slate of late-stage studies for its big drug: the anti-FcRn antibody IMVT-1401.

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August 2, 2021 06:08 PM EDT

Deals

Sanofi preps a multibillion-dollar buyout of an mRNA pioneer after falling behind in the race for a Covid-19 jab — report

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

It looks like Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson is dead serious about his intention to vault directly into contention for the future of mRNA vaccines.

A year after paying Translate Bio a whopping $425 million in an upfront and equity payment to help guide the pharma giant to the promised land of mRNA vaccines for Covid-19, Sanofi is reportedly ready to close the deal with a buyout.

Translate’s stock $TBIO soared 78% after the market closed Monday. A spokesperson for Sanofi declined to comment on the report, telling Endpoints News that the company doesn’t comment on market rumors.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Director, Clinical Program Management

Pliant Therapeutics

South San Francisco, CA, USA

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Anthony Sun, Zentalis and Zentera CEO (Zentalis)

August 2, 2021 10:21 AM EDTUpdated 11:22 AM

Financing

China

With clinical trials lined up for Zentalis drugs, China's Zentera sets its sights on more dealmaking and an IPO

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

As Zentalis geared up for an AACR presentation of early data on its WEE1 inhibitor earlier this year, its Chinese joint venture Zentera wasn’t idle, either.

Zentera, which has headquarters in Shanghai, had already nabbed clearance to start clinical trials in China for three of the parent company’s drugs. In May — just a month after Zentalis touted three “exceptional responses” out of 55 patients for their shared lead drug, ZN-c3 — it got a fourth CTA approval.

Thomas Soloway, T-knife CEO

August 2, 2021 09:32 AM EDT

Financing

What happens when you give a mouse a human self-antigen? Investors bet $110M to find out

Nicole DeFeudis

Editor

T-knife Therapeutics launched last August on a mission to isolate T cell receptors not from human donors, but from mice. Now, with a new CEO and a candidate bound for the clinic, the Versant-backed company is reloading with a fresh $110 million.

“What we are trying to do for the field of TCR therapy and solid tumor therapy is very analogous to what the murine platforms have done in antibody development,” CEO Thomas Soloway told Endpoints News.

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August 2, 2021 07:26 AM EDTUpdated 10:25 AM

FDA+

UPDATED: Watch out GlaxoSmithKline: AstraZeneca's once-failed lupus drug is now approved

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

Capping a roller coaster journey, AstraZeneca has steered its lupus drug anifrolumab across the finish line.

Saphnelo, as the antibody will be marketed, is the only treatment that’s been approved for systemic lupus erythematosus since GlaxoSmithKline’s Benlysta clinched an OK in 2011. The British drugmaker notes it’s also the first to target the type I interferon receptor.

Mirroring the population that the drug was tested on in late-stage trials, regulators sanctioned it for patients with moderate to severe cases who are already receiving standard therapy — setting up a launch planned for the end of August, according to Ruud Dobber, who’s in charge of AstraZeneca’s biopharmaceuticals business unit.

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July 31, 2021 06:00 AM EDT

Weekly

Not all mRNA vaccines are created equal. Does it matter?; Neuro is back; Private M&A affair; and more

Amber Tong

Senior Editor

Welcome back to Endpoints Weekly, your review of the week’s top biopharma headlines. Want this in your inbox every Saturday morning? Current Endpoints readers can visit their reader profile to add Endpoints Weekly. New to Endpoints? Sign up here.

As part of our broader and deeper drive, Endpoints has been pairing webinars with our special reports to cover more angles on a given topic. In conjunction with Max Gelman’s neuroscience feature, Kyle Blankenship moderated an insightful panel to discuss where the field is headed. You can register to watch it on demand here.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Director-Regulatory

Icosavax, Inc.

Seattle, WA, USA

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August 2, 2021 05:05 PM EDT

Pharma

Bristol Myers pulls lymphoma indication for Istodax after confirmatory trial falls flat

Kyle Blankenship

Managing Editor

Amid an industrywide review of cancer drugs with accelerated approval, Bristol Myers Squibb had to make the tough call last month to yank an approval for leading I/O drug Opdivo after flopping a confirmatory study. Now, a second Bristol Myers drug is on the chopping block.

Bristol Myers has pulled aging HDAC inhibitor Istodax’s indication in peripheral T cell lymphoma after a Phase III confirmatory study for the drug flopped on its progression-free survival endpoint, the drugmaker said Monday.

Rick Pazdur (via AACR)

July 29, 2021 04:22 PM EDTUpdated July 30, 05:28 PM

Pharma

FDA+

FDA's oncology head Rick Pazdur defends the accelerated approval pathway, claiming it is 'under attack'

Zachary Brennan

Senior Editor

The FDA is sounding the alarm over its accelerated approval pathway as backlash continues over the recent nod in favor of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, and an ODAC meeting on six such approvals that could potentially be pulled from the market — two of which already have.

“Do you think accelerated approval is under attack? I do,” Rick Pazdur, head of FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, said at a Friends of Cancer Research webinar on Thursday.

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