On February 5, 2021 Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) reported that the company will take part in a fireside chat at Guggenheim’s Virtual Healthcare Talks | 2021 Oncology Day, which will be webcast on Friday, February 12, 2021 (Press release, Bristol-Myers Squibb, FEB 5, 2021, View Source;2021-Oncology-Day/default.aspx [SID1234574672]). Chris Boerner, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer will answer questions about the company at 12 p.m. ET.

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Investors and the general public are invited to listen to a live webcast of the session at View Source Material related to the company’s presentation will be available at the same website at the start of the live webcast. An archived edition of the session will be available later that day.

On February 5, 2021 Ipsen (Euronext: IPN; ADR: IPSEY) reported that new data from its growing oncology portfolio will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU), taking place virtually from 11-13 February 2021 (Press release, Ipsen, FEB 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234574671]).11 A total of 10 abstracts spanning several genitourinary cancers including advanced RCC, and metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), highlight the utility of Ipsen’s medicines and its commitment to advancing patient care.1-10

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"The presentations showcased at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) GU exemplify Ipsen’s commitment to prioritize outcome measures which directly impact patients’ lives," said Amauri Soares, Vice President, Medical Affairs Oncology, Ipsen. "New data from the Phase III CheckMate -9ER trial highlight how first-line treatment with the combination of cabozantinib and nivolumab has the potential to extend the lives of patients living with advanced RCC without having to compromise on quality of life compared with sunitinib. We’re looking forward to sharing these data with the medical community at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) GU and bringing this important treatment option to patients at the earliest opportunity."

Highlights from key data on Ipsen medicines to be presented during the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) GU 2021 Symposium include:

Extended follow-up outcomes data from the CheckMate -9ER study including patients living with advanced RCC and sarcomatoid features (sRCC) – an aggressive histologic subtype associated with poor prognoses1
Patient reported outcomes of patients living with advanced RCC – additional analysis from the CheckMate -9ER study of the combination of Cabometyx (cabozantinib) with Opdivo (nivolumab) versus sunitinib2
A comparative, retrospective real-world evidence study suggesting Cabometyx (cabozantinib) was associated with a significantly higher response rate versus other TKIs (axitinib, lenvatinib, pazopanib, sorafenib, sunitinib) in patients living with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) following checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) treatment3
Findings from a study using machine learning to explore the potential synergistic effects of Cabometyx (cabozantinib) and a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) inhibitor in mRCC4
Trial design of the Phase III randomized, open-label CONTACT-02 study of Cabometyx (cabozantinib) plus Tecentriq (atezolizumab) versus second novel hormone therapy (NHT) in patients living with mCRPC5

On February 4, 2021 Precision BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: DTIL) a clinical stage biotechnology company dedicated to improving life with its proprietary ARCUS genome editing platform, reported it will participate in the Guggenheim Healthcare Talks 2021 Oncology Day on February 11, 2021 at 2:00 PM ET (Press release, Precision Biosciences, FEB 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234576689]).

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A live webcast of the presentation will be accessible on the Company’s website, www.precisionbiosciences.com, in the Investors & Media section under Events and Presentations. An archived replay of the webcasts will be available for approximately 30 days following the presentation.

On February 4, 2021 Elucida Oncology, a biotechnology company based on C Dots – ultra-small nanoparticles developed at Cornell that show promise in identifying and fighting cancer – reported that secured $44 million in financing, in addition to $28 million raised in 2018 (Press release, Elucida Oncology, FEB 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234575245]).

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A rendering of the molecular structure of a Cornell dot, which is smaller than 10 nanometers.
C Dots, originally called Cornell dots, were created more than 15 years ago in the lab of Uli Wiesner, the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Wiesner has been working to put C Dots to use in the fight against cancer ever since.

As a result of their size, C Dots proved safe and effective for use in human beings as both an imaging and a diagnostic tool in early clinical studies. The new funding will help the company gain regulatory approval as a targeted cancer therapeutic, and to expand its management team and its laboratory capabilities.

"This vote of support from investors means a lot to me," Wiesner said. "Given C Dots’ broad applicability, I have been pushing efforts in health care-focused startups since 2005 to commercialize this technology. At the beginning it was a reagent company. Then we started a company focusing on diagnostics, and now we have a company emphasizing therapeutics."

This evolution shows the flexibility and the value of the C Dot platform, he said.

Elucida was founded in 2014 and co-founders include Wiesner, Kai Ma, Ph.D. ’15, and Dr. Michelle Bradbury, director of intraoperative imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and professor of radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine.

In the C Dots, each silica-based nanoparticle has an embedded fluorescent molecule in the interior for optical detection, as well as several organic ligands and functional groups on the surface. This makes the C Dot platform more flexible: Specific ligands prevent attack from the body’s defenses, while targeting groups cause the C Dot to specifically bind with tumor cells when they come into contact.

In this configuration, C Dots are currently being tested as a diagnostic tool in ongoing clinical trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering and Weill Cornell Medicine. When they are injected into a person with cancer, the glowing C Dots attach to cancer cells and can be seen by the surgeon with the use of a fluorescent camera.

In order to gain regulatory approval as a targeted cancer therapeutic, the company will need to complete ongoing toxicology studies and file an Investigational New Drug application with the Food and Drug Administration, according to Geno Germano, CEO and president of Elucida. The latest round of funding will support these moves.

"We have an excellent technology, an incredible team at Elucida, and a world-class board to help us navigate the highly complex landscape around cancer therapeutics," Wiesner said.

Elucida is planning to start clinical trials this summer; by the spring of 2022, the company expects to have the first data from those trials.

"If this trial validates our therapeutic approach the way we think and hope it will," Wiesner said, "our C Dot nanoparticle platform will give us a whole battery of disease-fighting products."

Chris Dawson is a writer for the College of Engineering.

On February 4, 2021 Onxeo S.A. (Euronext Growth: ALONX, Nasdaq First North: ONXEO), ("Onxeo" or "the Company"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in the development of innovative drugs targeting tumor DNA Damage Response (DDR), in particular against rare or resistant cancers, reported that the Company has entered into a clinical research agreement with Institut Curie, the French leading cancer center, to conduct a phase 1b/2 study designed to evaluate the effect of AsiDNA, Onxeo’s first-in-class DDR inhibitor, in combination with radiotherapy in children with High-Grade Glioma (HGG) relapse and eligible to re-irradiation (Press release, Onxeo, FEB 4, 2021, View Source [SID1234575014]).

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High Grade Gliomas, representing about 20% of all pediatric central nervous system (CNS) tumors, still have a dismal outcome with a 5-year survival of less than 20%. Their standard treatment consists of surgical excision, in those locations where it is feasible, followed by radiotherapy (RT). In the absence of feasibility of surgical removal, a surgical biopsy is carried out to enable diagnosis. Radiotherapy is then performed alone or in association with chemotherapy and/or other medical treatments.

"This collaboration represents another clinical milestone for Onxeo and reflects the Company’s commitment to evaluate its drug candidate in indications with very high medical need, which is the case for this indication with a poor prognosis. The aim is to evaluate the synergy of the combination of AsiDNA with radiotherapy in order to improve treatment outcomes for these children suffering from relapsing High-Grade Glioma," said Olivier de Beaumont, Chief Medical Officer of Onxeo. "We are excited and honored to be collaborating with the teams at Institut Curie, a world-renowned academic institution that we would like to thank, as well as the teams of Fight Kids Cancer for their support in this research aimed at improving the care of these children."

"We look forward to start this original proof-of-concept study of the systemic administration of AsiDNA in combination with radiotherapy in this disease with a poor prognosis: the development of new treatments meets a major need. This first study is supported by a grant from the European Fight Kids Cancer program, which we thank for their support, and is being conducted within the framework of the European ITCC[2] consortium. High-grade gliomas in children are a particularly severe disease and the treatments available are limited in terms of their efficacy but also in terms of their potential toxicity on the brain. Combined with radiotherapy, AsiDNA could represent a real therapeutic breakthrough, bringing together greater efficacy with a very reassuring tolerance profile", said François Doz, MD, PhD, pediatrician oncologist, deputy director of clinical research, innovation and teaching at the SIREDO (Care, Innovation, Research, in oncology of children, adolescents and young adults) of Institut Curie and principal investigator of the study.

He concludes: "We are delighted with this clinical development in pediatric oncology of AsiDNA, an innovative therapy resulting from the work of Marie Dutreix’s research laboratory at Institut Curie. If this study is positive, it could pave the way for further studies in association with radiotherapy, in children with brain tumors".

Surgery, when possible, and radiotherapy, sometimes combined with chemotherapy, often allow control of the disease in high-grade gliomas in children, but this control is inconsistent and most usually transient because the tumors evolve secondarily due to the development of resistant tumor cells. In preclinical and clinical studies[3], the synergistic effect of AsiDNA in combination with "DNA breakers" such as radiotherapy has been demonstrated. Institut Curie and Onxeo collaborated on this multi-center phase 1b/2 trial design. Institut Curie, as study sponsor, will submit the application for authorization of this trial to the health authorities and ethics committees in the coming weeks, with the aim of initiating the study as early as 2021.

[1] Fight Kids Cancer is a European call for projects, a joint initiative of the French association Imagine for Margo, the Belgian KickCancer Foundation and the Luxembourg Kriibskrank Kanner Foundation.

[2] Innovative Therapies for Children with Cancer (ITCC) Consortium : www.itcc-consortium.org

[3] First-in-human phase I study of the DNA repair inhibitor DT01 in combination with radiotherapy in patients with skin metastases from melanoma. Le Tourneau C et al. Br J Cancer. 2016 May 24;114(11):1199-205