Medical, Industry Outlook
PRNewswire | July 14, 2023
Nona Biosciences, a wholly-owned subsidiary of HBM Holdings Limited, committed to cutting-edge antibody technology innovation and provider of integrated solutions from "Idea to IND" (I to ITM) announced that, DualityBio, a collaborator of Nona Biosciences, and BeiGene entered into an agreement for BeiGene to acquire an exclusive option for a global clinical and commercial license to an investigational, preclinical ADC program for patients with select solid tumors. This program was developed under the collaboration agreement commenced between Nona Biosciences and DualityBio.
Nona Biosciences entered into a collaboration agreement with DualityBio in 2022, pursuant to which Nona Biosciences granted the exclusive rights of its monoclonal antibodies for specific tumors to DualityBio to develop the world's first-in-class ADC. The collaboration between Nona Biosciences and DualityBio will continue in accordance with the terms of the collaboration agreement.
Nona Biosciences has established considerable experience and expertise in ADC field. While continuously optimizing its advanced platform technology, Nona Biosciences has actively established an ADC cooperation ecosystem and closely cooperated with multiple innovation pioneers, to fully unleash its innovation capability and accelerate the innovations of novel ADC therapeutics globally. Nona Biosciences will further expand its networks in ADC innovation as one of its core strategies, continue to enhance the value of innovation, and fulfill global medical needs.
About Nona Biosciences
Nona Biosciences is a global biotechnology company committed to cutting edge technology innovation, and providing a total solution from "Idea to IND" (I to ITM), ranging from target validation and antibody discovery through preclinical research. The integrated antibody and antibody-related discovery services with multiple modalities range from antigen preparation, animal immunization, single B cell screening, to antibody lead generation and engineering, developability assessment and pharmacological evaluation, leveraging advantages of Harbour Mice® platforms and the experienced therapeutic antibody discovery team.
Harbour Mice® generates fully human monoclonal antibodies in classical two light and two heavy chain (H2L2) format, and heavy chain only (HCAb) formats. Integrating Harbour Mice® and a single B cell cloning platform, Nona Biosciences is focused on driving global inventions of transformative next-generation drugs.
About DualityBio
DualityBio is a clinical-stage company focusing on the discovery and development of the next generation ADC therapeutics for patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases. DualityBio has successfully established a number of next-generation ADC technology platforms with global intellectual property rights. Building upon deep understanding of disease biology and translational capability, DualityBio has advanced four assets into global clinical studies, and developed more than 10 innovative product candidates that are currently in preclinical stage. Additionally, DualityBio is continuing to evolve its novel protein engineering and ADC technology platforms for the next wave of "super ADC" molecules including diverse payload classes, bispecific ADCs and dual-payload ADCs.
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Medical, Industry Outlook
PRNewswire | August 14, 2023
ERS Genomics Limited ('ERS') is pleased to announce a new license agreement with Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc ('SCBT,'). This is a non-exclusive licensing agreement granting SCBT access to the ERS CRISPR/Cas9 patent portfolio.
ERS founder, Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the 2020 Nobel Prize for the discovery of CRISPR/Cas9. Consequently, the ERS patent portfolio is the most comprehensive collection of proprietary rights to this gene editing technology.
Santa Cruz Biotechnology, headquartered in Dallas, has earned its place as a world leader in the biomedical research market, boasting a remarkable thirty-year track record of relentless innovation. With a specific focus on research tools and reagents, including monoclonal antibodies, biochemicals, labware, and now CRISPR products, SCBT has consistently demonstrated its commitment to advancing scientific exploration.
Commenting on the deal with ERS, Santa Cruz Biotechnology representative Dr. John R. Stephenson, President and CEO, had the following statement 'CRISPR/Cas9 technology is an exciting advancement for the scientific community. This technology has greatly expanded the possibilities of research. Santa Cruz Biotechnology offers Knock-Out, Activator and Nickase CRISPR products to most human and mouse protein encoding genes. The CRISPR product line complements our well established monoclonal antibody product line.
Eric Rhodes, CEO, ERS Genomics was equally positive about the new relationship: 'Santa Cruz has an established and impressive reputation for making innovative solutions accessible to scientists. This fully aligns with our core mission of advancing scientific progress and unlocking the full potential of CRISPR/Cas9 in our industry.'
Financial details of the agreement are not being disclosed.
About Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc
Santa Cruz Biotechnology is a world leader in the development of products for the biomedical research market. Over the past thirty years, the Company has focused on the ongoing development of research monoclonal antibodies, biochemicals, labware and CRISPR products. Santa Cruz Biotechnology has the highest commitment to quality and customer service.
About ERS Genomics
ERS Genomics is a biotechnology company based in Dublin, Ireland. The company was formed to provide broad access to the foundational CRISPR/Cas9 intellectual property held by Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier. Non-exclusive licenses are available for research and sale of products and services across multiple fields including research tools, kits, reagents; discovery of novel targets for therapeutic intervention; cell lines for discovery and screening of novel drug candidates; GMP production of healthcare products; companion animal and livestock health; production of industrial materials such as enzymes, biofuels and chemicals; and synthetic biology. ERS holds over 100 patents worldwide.
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Medical
Businesswire | July 26, 2023
SQZ Biotechnologies Company announced that Roche has determined that it will not exercise its option for HPV 16 positive solid tumors under the SQZ-APC-HPV program. SQZ Biotechnologies will regain full clinical development and future commercialization rights for its programs targeting HPV 16 positive tumors. The Company intends to explore potential strategic partnerships to support the advancement of its oncology programs and platforms.
The Company has completed a review of its portfolio and highlights the following achievements. SQZ® antigen presenting cells (APC) candidate was well tolerated in a Phase 1 trial and provided a significant survival benefit to a subpopulation of patients with enhanced tumor T cell infiltration. SQZ® enhanced antigen presenting cells (eAPC) candidate has completed enrollment of the highest dose monotherapy cohort in a Phase 1/2 trial, and initial data are anticipated in the second half of 2023. In addition, the low dose monotherapy cohort from the Phase 1 trial utilizing the Company’s Activating Antigen Carriers (AAC) candidate has demonstrated a confirmed complete response in one patient and an overall best response of stable disease in the other two patients. The high dose monotherapy cohort in this trial is currently enrolling, and initial data are anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2023. Finally, development and testing of the Point of Care Manufacturing system continue to advance and could significantly reduce the time and cost of cell therapy manufacturing and potentially make cell therapies more broadly accessible for patients.
“We have made meaningful progress across all our platforms this year and the management team and Board of Directors are enthusiastic about the power of Cell Squeeze® technology and the potential of the Company’s therapeutic programs,” said Howard Bernstein, Interim CEO and Member of the Board of Directors at SQZ. “As we move into the second half of this year, we are committed to assessing all of the Company’s potential strategic alternatives in an effort to advance our programs.”
About SQZ Biotechnologies
SQZ Biotechnologies is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on unlocking the full potential of cell therapies. The Company’s proprietary Cell Squeeze® technology offers the unique ability to deliver multiple biological materials into many patient cell types to engineer what the Company believes can be a broad range of potential therapeutics. The Company’s goal is to create well-tolerated cell therapies that can provide therapeutic benefit for patients and improve the patient experience over existing cell therapy approaches. With production timelines under 24 hours and the opportunity to eliminate preconditioning and lengthy hospital stays, the Company believes its approach could change the way people think about cell therapies.
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