On September 20, 2018 Vaccibody AS reported a new clinical collaboration with Nektar Therapeutics to evaluate Vaccibody’s personalized cancer neoantigen vaccine, VB10.NEO, in combination with Nektar’s CD-122-biased agonist, NKTR-214 (Press release, Vaccibody, SEP 20, 2018, View Source [SID1234529499]).

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VB10.NEO is designed to specifically activate the patient’s immune system to tumour specific antigens, called neoantigens. NKTR-214 is designed to lead to further stimulation and proliferation of the immune cells. Preclinical results indicate a synergistic effect of VB10.NEO and NKTR-214 resulting in enhanced neoantigen-specific T cell responses. The clinical evaluation will take place in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The first stage of the clinical trial will be a pilot study which will enroll 10 patients.

Nektar and Vaccibody each will maintain ownership of their own compounds in the clinical collaboration, and the two companies will jointly own clinical data that relate to the combination of VB10.NEO and NKTR-214. Under the terms of the agreement and following the completion of the pilot study, the two companies will evaluate next steps for development of the combination regimen.

Martin Bonde, CEO of Vaccibody, commented: We are very pleased to be joining forces with Nektar Therapeutics in this new clinical research collaboration. The preclinical in-vivo studies of NKTR-214 in combination with Vaccibody’s neoantigen vaccines generated very promising results. We look forward to further evaluate the Vaccibody neoantigen vaccine in combination with NKTR-214 in the clinic. The combination is designed to improve clinical outcome in patients that need additional help to elicit a strong, neoantigen-focused immune response and thus such combination may broaden the patient population benefitting from either therapy alone.

Jonathan Zalevsky, CSO of Nektar, said: Vaccibody technology holds the potential of combining a personalized cancer vaccine approach which is designed to drive antigen presentation with NKTR-214, which can drive specific clonal T cell expansion to vaccine epitopes. We look forward to working with Vaccibody to seek the advancement of this unique combination into the clinic.

About VB10.NEO

VB10.16, is a Vaccibody proprietary therapeutic DNA vaccine which uses private neoantigens for the personalized treatment of cancer patients. A phase I/IIa neoantigen clinical trial is currently enrolling patients with locally advanced or metastatic melanoma, non-small cell lung carcinoma, clear renal cell carcinoma as well as urothelial or squamous cell carcinoma off head and neck.

On September 20, 2018 Selecta Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SELB), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on unlocking the full potential of biologic therapies by mitigating unwanted immune responses, reported that CSO Takashi Kei Kishimoto, Ph.D., will present at the Jefferies Gene Therapy Summit in New York City at 9:10 a.m. ET on Thursday, September 27, 2018 (Press release, Selecta Biosciences, SEP 20, 2018, View Source [SID1234529498]). A live webcast of the presentation can be accessed via the Investors & Media section of the company’s website, View Source

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On September 20, 2018 OncoMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: OMED), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel anti-cancer therapeutics, reported that Celgene has notified OncoMed that due to strategic product portfolio considerations Celgene has decided not to exercise its option to license OncoMed’s bispecific antibody navicixizumab (anti-DLL4/VEGF bispecific, OMP-305B83) (Press release, OncoMed, SEP 20, 2018, View Source [SID1234529495]). Celgene continues to retain its options to license OncoMed’s etigilimab (anti-TIGIT monoclonal antibody, OMP-313M32) and rosmantuzumab (anti-RSPO3, OMP-131R10) under the collaboration. OncoMed and Celgene are working to formalize the termination of the collaboration agreement with respect to navicixizumab, and OncoMed expects to retain worldwide rights to navicixizumab.

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"While we are disappointed in Celgene’s decision, we thank them for the productive interactions in evaluating navicixizumab, and we respect their decision given their pipeline prioritization and focus," said John Lewicki, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of OncoMed. "With the global development and commercialization of navicixizumab remaining under our control, we are evaluating potential opportunities for the program and will continue to assess the data as it evolves for navicixizumab in combination with paclitaxel in heavily pretreated platinum-resistant ovarian cancer patients."

OncoMed is currently conducting a Phase 1b clinical trial of navicixizumab in combination with paclitaxel in patients with platinum-resistant late-stage ovarian cancer. Interim Phase 1b data will be presented in a poster presentation on October 20, 2018 at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) (Free ESMO Whitepaper) meeting to be held in Munich.

About Navicixizumab
OncoMed’s anti-DLL4/VEGF bispecific antibody, navicixizumab, is designed to inhibit the function of both DLL4 and VEGF and thereby induce potent anti-tumor responses while mitigating certain angiogenic-related toxicities. Navicixizumab was developed utilizing OncoMed’s BiMAb bispecific platform technology, which enables the design of bispecific antibodies comparable to traditional monoclonal antibodies but possessing dual target-binding specificity. In preclinical studies, navicixizumab demonstrated robust in vivo anti-tumor efficacy across a range of solid tumor xenografts, including colon, ovarian, lung and pancreatic cancers, among others. Further, in preclinical studies dual inhibition of DLL4 and VEGF appeared to exhibit synergistic anti-tumor activity at doses where blockade of either target alone elicited sub-optimal activity.

On September 19, 2018 AngioDynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGO), a leading provider of innovative, minimally invasive medical devices for vascular access, peripheral vascular disease, and oncology, reported that Michael C. Greiner, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will present at the Cantor Global Healthcare Conference at 8:35 a.m. ET on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 in New York, NY (Press release, AngioDynamics, SEP 19, 2018, View Source [SID1234529494]).

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A live webcast of the presentation will be accessible through the "Investors" section of the Company’s website at www.angiodynamics.com and will be available for replay following the event.

On September 19, 2018 AskAt Inc. reported that AskAt received the decision to grant a European patent dated September 13, 2018 from the European Patent Office (EPO) in connection with the Application No. 15182580.9, a use patent of EP4 receptor antagonist for the treatment of Cancer (Press release, AskAt, SEP 19, 2018, View Source [SID1234535046]).

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