CELL AND GENE THERAPY, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
Evaxion Biotech A/S | January 23, 2023
Evaxion Biotech A/S, a leading clinical-stage biotechnology firm focused on the development of AI-driven immunotherapies, recently announced that FDA has granted fast-track designation for the Company's customized cancer therapy, EVX-01, in conjunction with KEYTRUDA®.
In December 2022, Evaxion gained FDA clearance to proceed with its phase 2b clinical test, where patients with metastatic melanoma are given EVX-01 in combination with KEYTRUDA®. In addition, Evaxion obtained fast-track designation for the vaccine candidate on January 17, 2023. The fast track is developed to expedite FDA's assessment of innovative, novel medications with the potential to meet an unfulfilled medical need.
EVX-01, a peptide-based immunotherapy for cancer, is Evaxion's most advanced clinical asset. The program generates a unique medicine for each patient based on gene analysis of their malignancies and matching with their immune system. The Company's proprietary AI platform, PIONEER, helps facilitate this process.
Per Norlén, CEO at Evaxion, commented," We are extremely pleased that our cancer vaccine candidate EVX-01 has received the FDA fast track designation, as it enables a potentially faster approval of the vaccine. This is first and foremost to the benefit of the patients. And it is a great validation of our AI platform, PIONEER, and our drug development candidate."
(Source – Globe Newswire)
The ongoing Phase 2b clinical trial is being done at sites in Europe, the United States, and Australia. It is conducted in partnership with Merck, which supplies its PD-1 inhibitor KEYTRUDA®. The trial was launched in Australia when the first patient was enrolled in September 2022.
About Evaxion Biotech A/S
Evaxion is a clinical-stage AI-immunology™ platform company using AI, engineering expertise and drug development knowledge to identify and develop novel immunotherapies for the treatment of various cancers, bacterial diseases and viral infections. It has utilized artificial intelligence to build a diverse pipeline of candidate immunotherapies that target two of the most critical unmet medical needs in the world, cancer and infectious diseases. Its three proprietary AI platforms include PIONEER, EDEN and RAVEN.
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MEDTECH, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
SOPHiA GENETICS and QIAGEN | March 06, 2023
SOPHiA GENETICS, a healthcare cloud-based software company, announced a new partnership with QIAGEN N.V. that will pair QIAseq reagent technology with the SOPHiA DDM™ platform to improve tumor analysis via next-generation sequencing (NGS).
Customers can utilize QIAseq panels with SOPHiA DDM™, a cloud-based data analysis platform to enable new research perspectives. The partnership will support the detection of somatic variants using QIAseq targeted DNA pro panels for homologous recombination repair. HRR is a biomarker test that helps identify tumors with specific mutations that may be sensitive to PARP inhibitors in oncology.
SOPHiA GENETICS's Set-Up Program, which aims to establish and demonstrate any test's analytical performance before it is carried out, will be integrated with QIAGEN's kits to support a range of applications. This partnership will allow customers to improve the design of new workflows using QIAseq technologies, while SOPHiA DDM™ will offer extensive applications for QIAGEN kits.
QIAGEN intends to expand its partnership with SOPHiA GENETICS to other analysis areas, such as utilizing custom solutions and QIAseq panels. This partnership is the first one in QIAGEN's QIAseq Platform Partnership.
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) can transform the detection and management of rare diseases and cancers. However, it also generates large, intricate, and messy datasets that are challenging to analyze. Identifying causal variants and getting valuable insights from NGS data requires specialized expertise, time, and numerous resources. The SOPHiA DDM™ Platform is a machine learning-based analytical tool that can efficiently call, annotate, and pre-classify variants from raw NGS data. In addition, it features user-friendly capabilities to facilitate prioritization, interpretation and reporting.
About QIAGEN
QIAGEN is a global provider of sample and assay technologies for academic and pharmaceutical research, molecular diagnostics, and applied tests. In addition, the firm offers a wide range of products and solutions for the isolation, purification, and analysis of DNA, RNA, and proteins, as well as automation and bioinformatics services. With over 35 countries and over 5,000 employees, QIAGEN serves customers in various fields such as human healthcare, animal health, and environmental testing. The company is headquartered in Venlo, Netherlands, and has offices and facilities across the globe.
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CELL AND GENE THERAPY, INDUSTRIAL IMPACT
Biocytogen | January 05, 2023
RenNano™, a fully human heavy-chain antibody platform developed by Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., has been launched officially. RenNano™ joins RenMab™ and RenLite® as the newest member of the RenMice™ family. All three RenMice™ technologies from Biocytogen work together to speed up the search and development of entirely human monoclonal, bispecific/multispecific, and single-domain antibodies (sdAbs, or nanobodies).
Camels and sharks produce heavy-chain-only antibodies (HCAb), indicating their variable domains (VHH or sdAb) are functional without pairing with the light chain. Still, humans and mice produce antibodies that require heavy and light chain coupling to be effective. Because of their molecular weight and size, sdAbs can enter solid tumor tissues and breach the blood-brain barrier. Additionally, the sdAb's larger CDR3 region allows for detecting the otherwise concealed epitopes of GPCRs and other challenging targets.
Nanobodies offer their benefits, but it's challenging to use animals that naturally make HCAbs, like camels, in large numbers to create monoclonal antibodies due to their size, slow reproduction rate, and limited offspring supply. However, humanizing camelid antibody sequences for pharmaceutical use adds another layer of complexity and time to the drug development process.
Accordingly, Biocytogen modified the constant area of the entirely human RenMab™ model to create the RenNano™ Mouse, which is genetically modified to manufacture HCAbs. RenNano™ Mouse is one of the world's most comprehensive human antibody platforms due to the substitution of the mouse genes with the complete human heavy chain variable genes.
About Biocytogen
Biocytogen, a global biotechnology company, is at the forefront of developing cutting-edge methods for studying and creating new antibody-based pharmaceuticals. Biocytogen has streamlined the entire drug development process by integrating its drug efficacy screening platforms and clinical solid development expertise with its proprietary RenMab™, RenLite®, and RenNano™ platforms for the fully human monoclonal antibody, bispecific/multispecific antibody, and nanobody develo
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