MEDTECH, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
Businesswire | April 21, 2023
Twist Bioscience Corporation a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced a collaboration with Astellas Pharma Inc. by which Astellas will license a suite of Twist’s VHH antibody libraries to be used by Astellas for drug discovery and development.
“We are pleased to extend our collaboration with Astellas to three agreements across two groups within the company, showcasing our ability to meet the varying needs of our customers and support their success,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “This latest collaboration with Astellas demonstrates how Twist can enable our customers to grow their pipelines both externally with our antibody discovery services and by supporting their internal discovery with our highly specific and potent antibody libraries.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Astellas will license a suite of Twist’s VHH libraries for a period of five years and will use the libraries to conduct research and development activities. Twist will receive an upfront payment and will be eligible to receive annual maintenance fees and fees per product through payments associated with specific clinical and commercial milestones. Twist will also be eligible to receive royalty payments on product sales.
Twist VHH Antibody Libraries
Antibodies contain two variable domains, the heavy and the light chains. A VHH antibody, also known as a single domain antibody, is the antigen binding domain of the heavy chain, with three complementary determining regions (CDRs), or areas where antigens bind to the antibody. Twist’s VHH libraries use novel methods that combine synthetic and natural approaches to maximize diversity up to 10 billion for each library, creating high quality VHH libraries for use against any protein target. The small size of the VHH antibodies allow them to access targets that traditional antibodies cannot, with tight binding affinity. The modular nature of VHH antibodies supports creation of bi- or multi-specific antibodies ideal for developing next generation therapies specific to oncology, autoimmune disease and virology. During the pandemic, Twist published on the use of these libraries to neutralize SARS-CoV-2.
About Twist Bioscience Corporation
Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology and genomics company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform to industrialize the engineering of biology. The core of the platform is a proprietary technology that pioneers a new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a silicon chip. Twist is leveraging its unique technology to manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation sequencing (NGS) preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist makes products for use across many industries including healthcare, industrial chemicals, agriculture and academic research.
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INDUSTRIAL IMPACT, MEDICAL
prnewswire | April 17, 2023
Caris Life Sciences® the leading molecular science and technology company actively developing and delivering innovative solutions to revolutionize healthcare, and Flare Therapeutics, a biotechnology company targeting transcription factors to discover precision medicines for cancer and other diseases, today announced a multi-year strategic collaboration to accelerate precision medicine approaches across five of Flare's therapeutic programs into clinical trials through advanced molecular profiling approaches that guide patient selection and participation.
The partnership reinforces Flare's commitment to longitudinal testing, leveraging Caris' comprehensive molecular tissue and liquid profiling services including whole exome sequencing and whole transcriptome sequencing for patients enrolled in Flare's clinical trials, while also applying Caris' data and analytics tools to bolster future clinical trial enrollment programs and companion diagnostics capabilities.
"We understand the importance of shaping translational insights early on as a major area of focus to help ensure efficient drug development at scale and clinical trial preparedness," said Michaela Bowden, Ph.D., Chief Development Officer at Flare. "With access to Caris' robust clinico-genomic real-world data, comprehensive molecular profiling and extensive precision oncology alliance network, we are well positioned to unlock the full potential of drugging transcription factors by further unraveling the molecular complexities of cancer at the patient level and successfully enter the next phase of our growth as a clinical stage company."
Through comprehensive molecular profiling and the application of advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning, Caris has created the largest clinico-genomic database coupled with cognitive computing to unravel the molecular complexity of disease. Under the terms of the agreement, Flare will leverage Caris' industry-leading next generation sequencing technology for the molecular testing of patients treated with Flare's assets. In addition, Flare will receive access to Caris' data insights and analytics capabilities to accelerate oncology drug discovery, identify novel biomarkers and optimize clinical positioning strategies for their pipeline. Flare will also leverage Caris' biomarker-driven patient selection for clinical trials, allowing Caris the first option to develop a companion diagnostic for any drug candidate developed as part of the collaboration.
"This broad partnership with Flare will leverage Caris' leading molecular science and technology solutions to support Flare's novel approach to decipher the biology of transcription factors to develop small molecule medicines," said Milan Radovich, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Caris Life Sciences. "The data accessibility and continuum across real world and clinical trial populations will provide Flare the necessary insights for successful molecule discovery and development."
About Caris Life Sciences
Caris Life Sciences® is the leading molecular science and technology company actively developing and delivering innovative solutions to revolutionize healthcare and improve patient outcomes. Through comprehensive molecular profiling (Whole Exome and Whole Transcriptome Sequencing) and the application of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms, Caris has created the large-scale clinico-genomic database and cognitive computing needed to analyze and unravel the molecular complexity of disease. This information provides an unmatched resource and the ideal path forward to conduct the basic, fundamental research to accelerate discovery for detection, diagnosis, monitoring, therapy selection and drug development to improve the human condition.
With a primary focus on cancer, Caris' suite of market-leading molecular profiling offerings assesses DNA, RNA and proteins to reveal a molecular blueprint that helps patients, physicians and researchers better detect, diagnose and treat patients. The company's latest advancement, Caris Assure™, is a blood-based, circulating nucleic acids sequencing (cNAS) assay that combines comprehensive molecular analysis (Whole Exome and Whole Transcriptome Sequencing from blood) and serial monitoring
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MEDICAL, DIAGNOSTICS
Premier Research | March 14, 2023
Premier Research has partnered with InSilicoTrials, a leader in using artificial intelligence (AI) and computational modeling and simulation (CM&S) to speed up the development of new therapies and medical devices. Premier Research helps biotech and device companies take their ideas from the idea stage to the commercialization stage. The aim of the partnership is to make it easier, faster, and safer for treatments for rare diseases to get approval from the government.
CM&S and AI have made it possible to use virtual patients in clinical trials in whole or in part, which the FDA approves of in some cases. In silico trials make it possible to create fake control or treatment arms, help figure out how to sign up patients, and predict the safety and effectiveness of new drugs and medical devices more accurately.
The use of synthetic control arms generated using in silico CM&S techniques represents a powerful tool for enabling non-feasible rare disease research, both preclinical and clinical research. In the last five years, Premier Research has been in charge of more than 240 rare disease studies for a wide range of indications. This shows that the company is committed to orphan drug development for a long time. Premier Research is continuing to put money into trials for rare diseases by partnering with InSilicoTrials.
One major advantage of in silico simulation is the ability to investigate 'what if' scenarios, particularly in rare diseases where a larger patient population does not exist. By using biological, molecular, or genetic data to describe rare diseases, in silico models can make synthetic control arms. This, along with Premier Research's expertise in clinical and preclinical development, execution, and regulatory aspects of small population trials, can shorten the time it takes to make effective treatments for rare diseases.
The partnership between Premier Research and InSilicoTrials will focus on smarter in silico study design, leading to a more effective pre-clinical review of trial design parameters and faster submission-ready studies. CEO of InSilicoTrials Luca Emili says that combining modeling and simulation with AI is the best way to improve the R&D process in drug development. This is because it allows sponsors to speed up the development of new treatments, make medical products safer, and lower R&D costs.
About Premier Research
Premier Research is a global company that does clinical research, product development, and consulting. It focuses on using new technologies to design and run smart studies and trials. With more than 2,500 employees in 75 countries, it has a lot of experience in certain therapeutic areas and uses. The company is committed to empowering its customers to meet the unmet needs of patients and offers great benefits and flexible working conditions.
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