PharmAbcine Inc. | September 21, 2020
PharmAbcine Inc. (KOSDAQ: 208340ks) entered into a strategic partnership with Samsung Biologics (KRX: 207940.KS) for the development and manufacturing of PMC-403 pipeline, the next generation therapeutic antibody candidate to treat neovascular disorders. Samsung will provide the full scope of its CDO services from cell line development, process development, cGMP clinical manufacturing to IND filing support. PharmAbcine is a clinical-stage biotech company developing fully human therapeutic antibodies to treat cancer and neovascular disease. Olinvacimab, the company's lead molecule, is in phase II clinical trials for a combination therapy to treat cancer with MSD's Keytruda. PMC-403 is a novel agonistic antibody that binds to the human Tie2 receptor. PharmAbcine is developing PMC-403 as a therapeutic drug for both non ocular and ocular pathological vessel related diseases. The company expects PMC-403 to enter a global ophthalmological clinical trial in 2022. More recently, PharmAbcine signed a material cooperative research collaboration agreement with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in which NIAID will assess the efficacy of PMC-403 to treat Systemic Capillary Leak Syndrome (SCLS or Clarkson Disease).
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RESEARCH
Bio-Techne Corporation | September 08, 2021
Bio-Techne, a leading supplier of high-quality and innovative tools for life science research, therapeutic manufacturing and clinical diagnostics and Carterra Inc., the world leader in high-throughput antibody screening and characterization, today announced a clinical research collaboration studying COVID-19 variants. New variants, such as Delta, can be more easily transmitted and more likely to evade the immune response of vaccinated or previously infected people. To assess immune responses to new variants and to plan for intervention mechanisms that avoid vaccine escape, scientists and epidemiologists need a fast and effective assay.
The partnership leverages Carterra's flagship analytical platform - the LSA® - to characterize panels of SARS-CoV-2 spike and receptor-binding domain (RBD) variants in an information-rich assay. The SARS-CoV-2 variants were developed by Bio-Techne and used to fast-track the new, scalable assay for measuring the potential risks that new variants may evade the ability of the immune system to block the virus.
Bio-Techne has been leading the way in COVID-19 research reagent and immunoassay development enabling scientists to make discoveries leading to effective diagnoses, therapies and vaccines. The company was first to market with COVID-19 research protein variants and has significant expertise with SARS-CoV-2 antibody quantitation. Bio-Techne and Carterra will focus this collaboration on more than 40 variants, including the Delta variant that is prevalent today, and emerging variants as they are discovered.
The Carterra LSA will be used to generate high-definition insights with over 120 data points from patient serum samples, including a variant profile, ACE-2 blocking potential, and isotyping profiles of immunoglobin response. The LSA's hands-free, high-throughput setup requires only 2 µL of patient serum and provides for the analysis of new and emerging variants in the ever-evolving field of COVID-19 research.
Carterra's LSA instrument is the fastest, most sensitive and flexible biosensor platform on the market. Combining proprietary flow printing microfluidics with High Throughput Surface Plasmon Resonance (HT-SPR) technology, the LSA enables detailed screening and characterization of vast antibody or variant libraries, including full kinetic profiles. With the ability to generate real-time binding data for 384 proteins on one chip and assay up to 1152 patient samples in a single unattended run, the LSA significantly improves efficiency and speed in both drug discovery and clinical research.
About Bio-Techne
Bio-Techne Corporation is a global life sciences company providing innovative tools and bioactive reagents for the research and clinical diagnostic communities. Bio-Techne products assist scientific investigations into biological processes and the nature and progress of specific diseases. They aid in drug discovery efforts and provide the means for accurate clinical tests and diagnoses. With thousands of products in its portfolio, Bio-Techne generated approximately $931 million in net sales in fiscal 2021 and has approximately 2,700 employees worldwide.
About Carterra, Inc.
Carterra® is the leading provider of high throughput technologies designed to accelerate and improve the discovery of novel therapeutic candidates. Carterra's LSA™ instrument, software, and consumables for monoclonal antibody (mAb) characterization deliver up to 100 times the throughput of existing platforms in 10% of the time while using only 1% of the sample required by other systems. The LSA combines patented microfluidics technology with real-time high throughput Surface Plasmon Resonance (HT-SPR) and industry-leading data analysis and visualization software to revolutionize mAb screening. Carterra, Inc. is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has Customer Experience Centers in San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Boston, and Munich, Germany.
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INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
IONpath, Inc. | August 27, 2021
Ionpath, Inc., the leader in high-definition spatial proteomics, today announced a new program for biopharmaceutical research organizations interested in piloting spatial phenotyping analyses of tissue samples leveraging the company's Multiplexed Ion Beam Imaging (MIBI™) technology. Through this new program, customers can benefit from in-depth immune profiling and spatial analysis performed with the company's 30-marker Checkpoint Panel on its MIBIscope™ System.
The MIBIscope platform provides a high-resolution view into the dynamics of proteins in their native tissue environment and architecture. The resulting actionable data allows researchers to not only explore the spatial relationships between a tumor and infiltrating immune cells but to also classify cells and perform the quantitative analysis of checkpoint expression that is critical to advancing immune system-based therapy development.
"Since launching our Spatial Proteomic Services last year, we've seen tremendous interest in the program with more than 400% growth and significant repeat business from biopharma R&D teams who experience the unmatched impact that MIBI data brings to their prospective trial programs," said Dr. Sander Gubbens, CEO at Ionpath. "With this new pilot program, any biopharmaceutical company can quickly access high-definition spatial proteomic data and insights from our expert team that demonstrates the power MIBI data brings to their translational research."
Customer tissue samples are stained with metal-tagged antibodies using a workflow similar to the gold standard IHC. The samples are then analyzed with the MIBIscope, where an ion beam liberates the metal tags that are then detected with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer – delivering fast acquisition with extraordinary resolution and sensitivity. The sample is not destroyed during imaging and can be stored for follow-on studies or utilized for additional analyses.
"MIBI truly is a game changer, unencumbered by the deficiencies of fluorescent technologies," added Gubbens. "With our pilot program, new organizations will be able to see what they have been missing with other technologies and experience why our customers are expanding their use of MIBI – spanning from pre-clinical discovery to clinical trial sample analysis."
The Spatial Proteomics Pilot Program uses Ionpath's 30-marker Checkpoint Panel which provides classification of 26 cell populations and expression information for all cell types. Ionpath's expert team of pathologists, immunologists and bioinformaticians deliver actionable insights including cell classification, quantitative analysis of checkpoint expression, spatial information, and comparative cohort analysis.
About Ionpath
Ionpath, Inc., is a pioneer in high-definition spatial proteomics, revolutionizing tissue imaging and analysis to accelerate medical discovery and improve human health. Ionpath's MIBI™ (multiplexed ion beam imaging) platform breaks through the limitations of traditional immunohistochemistry (IHC), enabling a deeper understanding of the tissue microenvironment with highly multiplexed, quantitative single-cell analysis. With MIBI technology and the expertise of world-class pathology and data science teams, Ionpath provides actionable insights for translational and clinical researchers at leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and research organizations in immuno-oncology, immunology, neuroscience, and infectious disease research.
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