On March 2, 2021 Argobio SAS, a newly-created start-up studio dedicated to life sciences, reported its launch with 50 M€ of committed capital (Press release, Evotec, MAR 2, 2021, View Source;announcements/press-releases/p/argobio-announces-its-launch-with-50-meur-to-create-and-develop-pioneering-biotech-spinouts-with-the-support-of-bpifrance-kurma-partners-angelini-pharma-evotec-and-the-institut-pasteur-6030 [SID1234575898]). Argobio was initiated by Kurma Partners, a leading Paris and Munich-based healthcare venture capital firm, and Bpifrance, the French national investment bank. Kurma and Bpifrance were joined by complementary strategic investors, Angelini Pharma, a private international pharmaceutical company, Evotec, a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company, and the Institut Pasteur, internationally renowned center for biomedical research.

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Argobio will create and launch at least five ambitious biotech companies over the next five years sourcing innovative early-stage projects from renowned European academic research institutions. Argobio will focus on selected therapeutic areas, including rare diseases, neurological disorders, oncology, and immunology. It will also look to develop promising platform technologies for therapeutic products. The investors will have the opportunity to invest in the biotech companies created by Argobio.

Argobio will identify, select, and incubate these projects up to company creation, providing broad expertise in the discovery and development of innovative therapeutic products from its team of highly experienced biotech entrepreneurs. The team will be led by Yves Ribeill, Neill Mackenzie and Rémi Soula. Thierry Laugel, Managing Partner at Kurma Partners will be appointed President of Argobio, and Laurent Arthaud, Director of the Biotech and Ecotech investment of Bpifrance, will be appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

"Building on our BRIDGE strategy and partnerships, we continue to be dedicated to making Evotec’s all-modality technology platforms available to validate and accelerate therapeutic concepts from toptier academic institutions globally. As an investor into Argobio, we are delighted to work with a group of distinguished partners and entrepreneurs to build companies committed to the maturation of first-in-class therapeutics towards drugs that which will change patients’ lives and cure diseases with some of the highest medical needs," said Dr. Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec SE.

On March 2, 2021 CMAB Biopharma (Suzhou) Inc’s ("CMAB") partner QureBio Ltd ("QureBio") reported its innovative drug Q-1802 received United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for an Investigational New Drug (IND) application (Press release, CMAB Biopharma, MAR 2, 2021, View Source [SID1234575875]). This application is the first clinical research in the U.S. by QureBio.

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Q-1802 is the lead candidate in QureBio’s pipeline and is the first bispecific antibody against PD-L1 and Claudin18.2 to be studied in a U.S. clinical trial. As part of the collaboration, CMAB provided integrated CDMO services for the Q-1802 program, utilizing its antibody production platform. Services included CMC development activities and successful production of drug substance and drug product batches in only 9 months.

"We are very glad to collaborate with CMAB. During the Q-1802 program, the two groups worked together and completed the CMC development and production of clinical samples efficiently and rapidly." said Dr. Xiangdong Qu, Founder and CEO of QureBio. "The first-class technology and GMP level, as well as thoughtful services of CMAB team impressed us a lot during our collaboration. We are looking forward to continuing work with CMAB, and we are also striving to bring better innovative dual anti-drugs to patients as soon as possible."

Dr. Yongzhong Wang, CEO of CMAB said, "We appreciate the trust of Dr.Qu and QureBio, and congratulation them on having Q-1802 become the world’s first bispecific antibody against PD-L1 and Claudin18.2 approved for a clinical trial in the US. There are unique development challenges when dealing with a bispecific antibody and we are very proud of our team who utilized our antibody platform in order to achieve, industry-leading speed to get a US IND approved successfully. It is also a testament to the excellent cooperation between CMAB and QureBio. CMAB will continue to accelerate the process of Q-1802 from QureBio, and look forward to reaching the next milestone early."

On March 2, 2021 Oscotec Inc. (039200: KOSDAQ), the Korean drug development company, and Beactica Therapeutics AB, the Swedish drug discovery company, reported a new research development and licensing agreement (Press release, Oscotec, MAR 2, 2021, View Source [SID1234575874]). Oscotec and Beactica will initially jointly collaborate concerning research and early preclinical development of novel anti-cancer drug candidates arising out of Beactica’s LSD1 programme. Oscotec may thereafter opt to take full responsibility for clinical development and commercialization.

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Under the terms of the agreement, Oscotec is entitled to gain exclusive global rights for further development and commercialization of Beactica’s programme. Beactica is eligible to receive up to EUR 149 million in potential preclinical, clinical and regulatory milestones, including an upfront and equity payment from Oscotec upon signing of the agreement. Furthermore, Beactica is eligible to receive double-digit royalties on commercial sales of the products resulting from the partnership. Beactica is also entitled to revenue shares from any related future licensing activities by Oscotec. Full financial details remain undisclosed.

"We are thrilled about the opportunity to work with Beactica on the LSD1 allosteric inhibitor programme that we hope opens up very unique and exciting possibilities," said Dr Taeyoung Yoon, CEO/CSO of Oscotec. "Not only could this opportunity fill our need of balancing the preclinical pipeline in the short term, we are convinced that the partnership will also bring to us added value of collaborative science where the two companies complement each other extremely well.""This is a landmark agreement for Beactica, and we are delighted to be working with Oscotec." said Dr Per Källblad, CEO of Beactica Therapeutics. "Their commitment to building a strong clinical pipeline of targeted therapeutics in immunology and oncology makes Oscotec an ideal partner for our programme."

On March 2, 2021 Transgene (Euronext Paris: TNG), a biotech company that designs and develops virus-based immunotherapeutics against cancer, reported that members of Transgene’s management and scientific team have been invited to participate at upcoming (virtual) scientific conferences (Press release, Transgene, MAR 2, 2021, View Source [SID1234575873]):

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ESMO Targeted Anticancer Therapies Congress 2021 which will take place March 2-4:

Éric Quéméneur, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), will be speaking in the session ‘Where next with Oncolytics’ about Antibody armed oncolytic viruses (ID 42)
Date & Time: March 3rd at 4.20pm (CET)
Royal Society Meeting on ‘Immuno-oncology: How to get the immune system to beat cancer’ which will take place March 24-25:

This Royal Society meeting will explore immuno-oncology therapies – both current and recent technologies. Eric Quéméneur will participate in the immuno-oncology breakthroughs session.
Date & Time: March 24th at 3.50pm (GMT)
4th Annual European Neoantigen Summit which will take place April 20-22:

Kaidre Bendjama, Project Leader, Personalized Cancer Vaccines, will be speaking about TG4050: Viral immunotherapy meets AI technology
Date & Time: April 22nd at 1pm (CET)

On March 1, 2021 Window Therapeutics reported that in March, 2020, the company in conjunction with the Johnson Lab at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was awarded the prestigious Assay Cascade Grant, for its Window-Bortezomib program for Multiple Myeloma, from the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL), a division of the National Cancer Institute and the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (Press release, Window Therapeutics, MAR 1, 2021, View Source [SID1234609535]). The NCL accepts the most promising cancer nanomedicine candidates into its Assay Cascade characterization and testing program.
Nanomedicines accepted into the program undergo a rigorous evaluation ranging from sterility and endotoxin testing, physicochemical characterization, in vitro hemato- and immunotoxicity, and in vivo studies to evaluate safety, efficacy and pharmacokinetics. The studies are tailored to each individual nanomedicine and are designed to promote the clinical translation of these novel therapies. All studies are conducted free of charge for Awardees. Initiation of the evaluation of the Window-Bortezomib program began in the first half of 2021 with developmental research currently in progress.

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