Medical, Industry Outlook
Businesswire | July 24, 2023
Massive Bio, an AI-powered platform connecting patients with clinical trials and CureMatch, a healthcare technology company leveraging Knowledge Representation & Reasoning (KRR) AI for precision medicine support for oncology, and have announced a transformative partnership aimed at revolutionizing cancer treatment through advanced genomics, artificial intelligence, and expansive clinical trial accessibility.
Massive Bio and CureMatch will leverage their cutting-edge technologies to provide oncologists and their patients unprecedented access to potentially lifesaving clinical trials, personalized cancer treatments, and comprehensive reports on the most effective therapies based on individual patients' profiles.
Selin Kurnaz, CEO and Co-Founder of Massive Bio, highlights the potential of this alliance: "This partnership with CureMatch combines the power of precision medicine with the most advanced AI-driven clinical trial matching. It disruptively accelerates the drug development process, offering faster access to advanced therapies for patients."
Navid Alipour, CEO of CureMatch, also emphasized the transformative potential of the partnership. "CureMatch is thrilled to join forces with Massive Bio. By integrating our personalized oncology platform with their AI-driven clinical trial matching system, we can reach more patients and provide the best possible treatment options. Our mission is to improve the quality of life for countless patients and contribute to the global fight against cancer."
In this game-changing alliance, CureMatch will harness its distinctive platform to identify patients who stand to benefit most from groundbreaking clinical trials, thereby magnifying the reach and impact of Massive Bio's trials. Simultaneously, Massive Bio will employ its cutting-edge AI capabilities to process a wealth of patient clinical health data, including variables such as cancer type, demographics, geographic location, and historical data. By weaving this intricate data mosaic with CureMatch's customized reports, Massive Bio will expertly determine potential matches for appropriate clinical trials. This pioneering approach not only streamlines patient identification but also propels drug development and fortifies personalized treatment strategies. As a result, this transformative partnership presents a highly compelling opportunity for similar future partners looking to fuel the future of precision oncology.
Dr. Arturo Loaiza-Bonilla, Co-Founder of Massive Bio, believes the collaboration will not only contribute to cancer treatment innovation but will also play a vital role in reducing disparities in clinical trial participation. "This partnership addresses a critical gap in oncology research, providing an opportunity for all patients, regardless of their geographical location, to access cutting-edge treatments."
By leveraging the expertise and technological capabilities of both organizations, the partnership aims to facilitate the referral of patients to clinical trials, thus increasing access to potential therapies for cancer patients. As a result, patients worldwide stand to benefit from advanced precision medicine delivered locally, improving health outcomes and reducing healthcare costs.
About Massive Bio
Massive Bio is at the forefront of empowering cancer patients to discover their optimal treatment options. Utilizing AI to enhance equitable access and precision targeting for clinical trial matching, drug matching, and drug development, Massive Bio is committed to breaking down barriers in clinical trial enrollment, fostering value-based oncology decisions, and facilitating data-driven cancer treatment. Serving over three dozen pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, and hospital networks, Massive Bio has earned recognition from the National Cancer Institute with an SBIR contract. Founded in 2015 by a team of clinical, technology, and M&A executives, Massive Bio boasts a global presence with nearly 100 people across 12 countries. For further details, please visit www.massivebio.com, https://askfiona.ai, https://drarturo.ai or interact with us on our social media channels.
About CureMatch
CureMatch, Inc. is a digital health company focused on personalized medicine and combination therapy in oncology. CureMatch's Decision Support System guides oncologists in the selection of cancer drugs that are personalized for individual patients based on their molecular tumor profile.
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Medical, Industry Outlook
PRNewswire | August 07, 2023
Ginkgo Bioworks the leading horizontal platform for cell programming and biosecurity, and the Government of the Republic of Panama's Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies, today announced that they have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with the intent to develop and implement new biosecurity capabilities in Latin America.
Ginkgo, through its biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, aims to support the Gorgas Institute as it builds Panama's foundational bioeconomy that will serve not only the country, but also the surrounding region. These efforts will bolster Panama's biosecurity infrastructure, giving the country key tools to detect, identify, and monitor current and future pathogens. It will also be Concentric's first Latin American program, as the company continues to expand operations internationally.
As part of the program, Concentric will collaborate with the Gorgas Institute to strengthen their current surveillance infrastructure for COVID-19, as well as other respiratory and enteric pathogens, leveraging Concentric's expertise in wastewater monitoring, lab enablement, and bioinformatics analysis and decision support.
The program is expected to operate in strategic locations that can help bolster both national and regional public health and security throughout Panama. These include, but are not limited to, wastewater surveillance in major urban centers like Panama City, as well as at ports-of-entry, including the border crossing in the Darien National Park and Tocumen International Airport (PTY).
By establishing these monitoring programs, Panama will become a critical node in Concentric's global network that collects data to help public health and national security officials detect and respond to emerging biological threats. The information captured from these programs is expected to play a key role in strengthening not only Panama's COVID-19 and novel pathogen detection infrastructure, but also provide key data for regional pandemic preparedness.
"We're honored to collaborate with the Republic of Panama to strengthen the region's health security capabilities through pathogen threat detection in Panama City and the Darien region," said Matt McKnight, General Manager, Biosecurity at Ginkgo Bioworks. "Robust bio-surveillance in Panama is critical not only for the health of the country, but also for the security of the Western Hemisphere, and I am confident this partnership will strengthen health security in the region and the world."
"These detection and monitoring programs are an important aspect of Panama's public health initiatives. We are excited to collaborate with Concentric on these important biosecurity programs," said Dr. Juan Miguel Pascale, General Director of Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal platform for cell programming, providing flexible, end-to-end services that solve challenges for organizations across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial and specialty chemicals. Ginkgo's biosecurity and public health unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure for biosecurity to empower governments, communities, and public health leaders to prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of biological threats.
About the Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies
Gorgas Memorial Institute is the national reference laboratory and research institute of Panama, and the support arm of the Ministry of Health. Founded in 1928 in memory of Dr. William C. Gorgas who implemented public health measures that allowed the control of malaria and yellow fever enabling the construction of the Panama Canal, its research has been centered in the study of tropical diseases: leishmaniasis, malaria, yellow fever, Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya among other arbovirosis as well as the surveillance of Influenza and respiratory viruses and endemic agents such as Hantavirus, Venezuelan and Eastern Equine Encephalitis. During the last decade it has also been involved in HIV surveillance and in research of non-communicable diseases in the country.
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Industry Outlook
PRNewswire | July 10, 2023
Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. a clinical-stage cell and gene therapy company advancing a new class of treatments for patients with cancer and rare diseases, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for P-CD19CD20-ALLO1, the Company's first allogeneic dual CAR-T cell product candidate, which targets both CD19 and CD20 antigens for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies and is being developed in partnership with Roche.
"We are pleased to receive IND clearance for P-CD19CD20-ALLO1, our third fully allogeneic CAR-T cell product candidate and the second therapy in our partnership with Roche for hematological malignancies that will enter the clinic. We believe this represents the FDA's first known IND clearance of an allogeneic dual CAR-T therapy targeting CD19 and CD20," said Kristin Yarema, Ph.D., President, Cell Therapy at Poseida. "The dual-targeting approach leverages our proprietary non-viral piggyBac® DNA Delivery System, which enables expression of two fully functional CAR molecules into T cells from healthy donors for the treatment of B-cell malignancies that may have heterogeneous antigen expression. We believe that targeting both CD19 and CD20 has the potential to overcome the limitations of currently available CD19-directed CAR-T products where antigen escape has been observed as an important resistance mechanism. It has been estimated that up to 40% of cases where B-cell malignancies relapse or are refractory to CD19 targeting autologous CAR-T therapy may involve antigen escape. We look forward to dosing the first patients in this study."
P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 will be evaluated in a Phase 1 multi-center, open-label, dose-escalation study that will enroll up to 70 adult patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies. The study will evaluate the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of P-CD19CD20-ALLO1. After enrollment, patients will receive a chemotherapy-based lymphodepletion regimen followed by administration of P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 allogeneic CAR-T cells. With the P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 IND now cleared, the Company is actively focused on opening clinical sites.
About P-CD19CD20-ALLO1
P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 is an allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy product candidate being developed for relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies in partnership with Roche. P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 expresses two fully functional CAR molecules to target cells that express either CD19 or CD20. The dual targeting approach employed in P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 aims to overcome the antigen escape limitations of CD19-only targeted CAR-T therapies by simultaneously targeting both CD19 and CD20. In addition to the dual targeting, P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 uses a novel CD19 binder that showed greater potency in in vivo preclinical models when compared to the canonical FMC63 Single-chain variable fragment (scFv) binder. P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 is an off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy for which patients do not have to undergo apheresis and wait for the cells to be manufactured, which can potentially overcome the limitation of autologous CAR-T therapies associated with significant manufacturing times. P-CD19CD20-ALLO1 will be studied in multiple B-cell malignancies
About Poseida Therapeutics, Inc.
Poseida Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing differentiated cell and gene therapies with the capacity to cure certain cancers and rare diseases. The Company's pipeline includes allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy product candidates for both solid and liquid tumors as well as in vivo gene therapy product candidates that address patient populations with high unmet medical need. The Company's approach to cell and gene therapies is based on its proprietary genetic editing platforms, including its non-viral piggyBac® DNA Delivery System, Cas-CLOVER™ Site-Specific Gene Editing System and nanoparticle and hybrid gene delivery technologies.
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