INDUSTRIAL IMPACT, MEDICAL
Businesswire | March 29, 2023
Bicycle Therapeutics plc a biotechnology company pioneering a new and differentiated class of therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) technology, today announced that it has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Novartis to develop, manufacture and commercialize Bicycle® radio-conjugates (BRCs) for multiple agreed upon oncology targets.
“This collaboration builds on the groundbreaking clinical work we have been doing in the toxin conjugate field and provides new and additional validation for this unique technology,” said Kevin Lee, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics. “We look forward to working closely with Novartis to pioneer the discovery and development of potential new cutting-edge radiopharmaceutical cancer treatments based on Bicycles. We believe the properties of Bicycles make them well suited for the development of precision guided radiopharmaceuticals and represents the next leg in the application of our proprietary discovery platform in oncology.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Bicycle will utilize its proprietary phage platform to discover Bicycles to be developed into BRCs. Novartis will be responsible for further development, manufacture and commercialization of the BRCs. Novartis will fund all pre-clinical and clinical development and commercialization activities. Bicycle will receive a $50 million upfront payment and is eligible for development and commercial-based milestone payments totaling up to $1.7 billion. Bicycle will also be eligible to receive tiered royalties on Bicycle-based medicines commercialized by Novartis.
About Bicycle Therapeutics
Bicycle Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a novel class of medicines, referred to as Bicycles, for diseases that are underserved by existing therapeutics. Bicycles are fully synthetic short peptides constrained with small molecule scaffolds to form two loops that stabilize their structural geometry. This constraint facilitates target binding with high affinity and selectivity, making Bicycles attractive candidates for drug development. Bicycle is evaluating BT5528, a second-generation Bicycle Toxin Conjugate targeting EphA2; BT8009, a second-generation BTC targeting Nectin-4, a well-validated tumor antigen; and BT7480, a Bicycle TICA™ targeting Nectin-4 and agonizing CD137, in company-sponsored Phase I/II trials. In addition, BT1718, a BTC that targets MT1-MMP, is being investigated in an ongoing Phase I/IIa clinical trial sponsored by the Cancer Research UK Centre for Drug Development. Bicycle is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with many key functions and members of its leadership team located in Cambridge, MA.
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INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
PRNewswire | May 22, 2023
Menarini Silicon Biosystems (MSB), a pioneer of liquid biopsy and single cell technologies, announced today its partnership with Alivio Health. This new agreement opens the door to preferred access for Alivio Health clients and providers to the valuable information offered by the CELLSEARCH CTC tests, which allow longitudinal monitoring of cancer patients at any time during the course of the disease. Starting from a simple blood draw, CELLSEARCH CTC tests provide valuable information on a patient's cancer at diagnosis and during therapy, which enables doctors to make more informed and timely decisions to optimize their therapeutic strategy.
According to Daryl Spinner Vice President, Market Access and Reimbursement at Menarini Group "we are delighted by this new partnership that makes it easier for Alivio Health's members to access and their physicians to order our tests. All members of Alivio Health can now benefit with preferred access and pricing from the improved and more rapid diagnostic information and therapeutic approaches these tests inform". Indeed, MSB's Gold Standard CELLSEARCH® CTC test is the first and only clinically validated, FDA-cleared test for capturing and enumerating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in cancer patients with metastatic breast, prostate and colorectal cancer to help inform clinical decision-making. New CELLSEARCH LDTs (Laboratory Developed Tests) are also available to clinicians for CTC enumeration and HER2 and PD-L1 targeted therapy-associated biomarker analysis in patients with various solid tumors, as well as for patients with melanoma and multiple myeloma. The minimally invasive nature of the CELLSEARCH tests makes them convenient to monitor patients with serial CTC testing for real-time clinical information at any time during the course of their disease.
The new partnership will benefit the members of Alivio Health whose main mission is to facilitate access to the right test at the right time. Specifically, among the over 200,000 members of Alivio Health's participating health plans, patients with cancer will now have access to more accurate, timely, affordable and reimbursable MSB liquid biopsy tests, so that they may benefit from a more informed therapeutic strategy.
For Fabio Piazzalunga, President and CEO of MSB, "we are particularly excited by this opportunity to reach out to a broader pool of professionals and patients thanks to this new partnership. As we pursue our relentless endeavors to advance liquid biopsy tests that can aid in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of patients, we are also eager to ensure that our technology is accessible to the clinicians who can prescribe them". For both MSB and Alivio Health, this partnership will contribute to their common and primary ambition, which is to expand access to innovative testing approaches that allow providers to better understand the disease dynamics of their patients and therefore offer improved care to patients.
About Menarini Silicon Biosystems (MSB)
MSB offers unique rare-cell technologies and solutions that provide clinical researchers with access to unparalleled resolution in the study of cells and their molecular characterization.
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MEDTECH, MEDICAL
Businesswire | May 23, 2023
Twist Bioscience Corporation a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, today announced the launch of a portfolio of RNA sequencing tools, which includes the Twist RNA Exome, Twist RNA Library Prep Kit and the Twist Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) & Hemoglobin (Globin) Depletion Kit, as well as custom target enrichment capabilities for RNA and whole transcriptome sequencing. This comprehensive suite of RNA tools can enable targeted or whole transcriptome research across fields including precision medicine, biomarker discovery and immuno-oncology research.
“Twist’s RNA sequencing portfolio builds on our established NGS capabilities in genomic sequencing and methylation detection and expands into gene expression analysis, opening a new and significant market for Twist,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. “This offering allows our customers to leverage Twist’s leading target enrichment platform to discover and resolve low abundance RNA transcripts in the human transcriptome. Our RNA sequencing workflows are designed specifically for challenging samples. By enriching relevant transcripts, we can enable researchers to get high-quality data from a range of sample types, including damaged RNA.”
Unlike the genome, which is relatively static, the transcriptome changes over time in response to varying disease states and drug therapies. Gene expression levels also differ across tissues and cell types. To fully understand this dynamic quality of RNA, researchers often sequence RNA samples from the same source at multiple time points, incurring additional costs and resource burdens. Each component of the Twist RNA sequencing portfolio is purpose-built to maximize data quality, minimize workflow inefficiency, decrease wasted sequencing reads, and support comprehensive transcriptomic profiling across even low-quality and low-input samples common in oncology.
The Twist RNA sequencing portfolio provides end-to-end workflows that can be used to study total RNA and measure the whole transcriptome, protein coding sequences of messenger RNA (mRNA) or custom targets. These products can also be integrated into customers’ existing workflows. Twist RNA sequencing tools enable minimal hands-on time and increase the scale of samples sequenced through utilizing automation. They are compatible with a wide range of sample inputs, including difficult or low-quality samples. RNA panel designs can also now incorporate Twist’s new exon-aware design algorithm, which reduces bias in detection and can provide an important tool for researchers studying rare gene transcripts that drive tumor biology.
Twist Targeted RNA Sequencing Workflow
Twist target enrichment for RNA leverages the performance, efficiency and sensitivity of Twist target enrichment for sequencing of RNA transcripts of interest across samples and species. It can be used to enrich relevant transcripts with the RNA Exome or in custom RNA panels.
Twist RNA Exome
The Twist RNA Exome with Twist’s exon-aware design algorithm enables targeted sequencing of the protein coding regions of the human transcriptome without bias toward specific combinations of exons. The Twist RNA Exome covers up to 99.9% of protein coding sequencing in Gencode and RefSeq databases. This coverage, along with the exon-aware design approach, could enable researchers to capture important transcripts including those in low input and degraded samples from formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) sections.
Twist Whole Transcriptome Sequencing Workflow
Twist Whole Transcriptome Sequencing can be used to discover novel transcripts, including low expressing genes and novel isoforms. It can be used with a variety of samples including whole blood, fresh and frozen tissue samples and low quality samples, such as FFPE samples. The Twist rRNA & Globin Depletion Kit can be used with this workflow to deplete rRNA and hemoglobin targets so that researchers can study the rest of the transcriptome. The full workflow can be completed in less than five hours with minimal hands-on time.
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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