On April 5, 2021 Vincerx Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: VINC) (the "Company"), reported that it will redeem all of its outstanding public warrants (the "Public Warrants") to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock, $0.0001 par value per share ("Common Stock"), that were issued under the Warrant Agreement, dated as of March 5, 2020 (the "Warrant Agreement"), by and between the Company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent (the "Warrant Agent"), and that remain outstanding at 5:00 p.m. New York City time on May 5, 2021 (the "Redemption Date") for a redemption price of $0.01 per Public Warrant (the "Redemption Price") (Press release, Vincerx Pharma, APR 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234577573]). Prior to the Redemption Date, the Company’s units, listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "LSACU," will each be separated into one share of Common Stock and one Public Warrant, and be traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbols "LSAC" and "LSACW," respectively.

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Warrants to purchase Common Stock that were issued under the Warrant Agreement in a private placement and still held by the initial holders thereof or their permitted transferees are not subject to this redemption.

Under the terms of the Warrant Agreement, the Company is entitled to redeem all the outstanding Public Warrants if the last sale price of the Common Stock is at least $16.50 per share for any 20 trading days within any 30-day trading period ending on the third business day prior to the date on which a notice of redemption is given. This share price performance target has been met. At the direction of the Company, the Warrant Agent has delivered a notice of redemption to each of the registered holders of the outstanding Public Warrants.

Each Public Warrant may be exercised by the holders thereof until 5:00 p.m. New York City time on the Redemption Date, to purchase one-half (1/2) of a fully paid and non-assessable share of Common Stock underlying such warrant, at the exercise price of $11.50 per whole share of Common Stock. Pursuant to the Warrant Agreement, a holder may exercise its warrants only for a whole number of shares. This means that only an even number of Public Warrants may be exercised at any given time by a holder. Any Public Warrants that remain unexercised following 5:00 p.m. New York City time on the Redemption Date will be void and no longer exercisable, and the holders of those Public Warrants will be entitled to receive only the redemption price of $0.01 per warrant. 6,563,767 Public Warrants were initially issued by the Company, exercisable for an aggregate of 3,281,883 shares of Common Stock at a price of $11.50 per share, representing a total of approximately $37.7 million in potential proceeds to the Company.

None of the Company, its board of directors or employees has made or is making any representation or recommendation to any holder of the Public Warrants as to whether to exercise or refrain from exercising any Public Warrants.

The shares of Common Stock underlying the Public Warrants have been registered by the Company under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and are covered by a registration statement on Form S-1 filed with, and declared effective by, the Securities and Exchange Commission (File No. 333-252589).

Questions concerning redemption and exercise of the Public Warrants can be directed to Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, 1 State Street, 30th Floor, New York, New York 10004, Attention: Compliance Department, telephone number (212) 509-4000.

No Offer or Solicitation

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any offer of any of the Company’s securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

On April 5, 2021 Ichnos Sciences Inc., a global biotechnology company developing innovative biologic treatments in oncology and autoimmune diseases, reported the appointment of Cyril Konto, M.D., to the new position of Chief Medical Officer (CMO), effective immediately (Press release, Ichnos Sciences, APR 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234577572]).

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Dr. Konto, who reports to Chief Executive Officer Alessandro Riva, M.D., will oversee oncology clinical sciences, clinical operations, regulatory sciences, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics, biometrics, drug safety, and quality. He will also work closely with the discovery and antibody engineering organizations to select and set priorities for research targets.

Previously, Dr. Konto was vice president of clinical development at Allogene Therapeutics, which was spun off from Pfizer in 2018. At Pfizer, he was global head of early immuno-oncology clinical development. Earlier, he worked in both medical affairs and clinical development at Bristol Myers Squibb.

"My career has been devoted to helping patients with cancer and I am excited to join Ichnos to continue this journey," said Dr. Konto. "I am eager to work with the team to advance Ichnos’ innovative pipeline, including our trispecific antibodies, and to explore potential synergies between these compounds and other promising approaches such as checkpoint inhibitors and cell therapy."

"Cyril has a long track record of successfully developing novel oncology therapies spanning from checkpoint inhibitors and immune cell engagers to cell therapies, and he has contributed to regulatory filings and approvals globally," said Alessandro Riva. "His strategic, scientific, and operational track record will be highly valuable for our organization."

An oncologist by training, Dr. Konto began his career practicing medicine in Paris, France, at the Pierre and Marie Curie University, where he held both clinical and academic positions. He received his medical degree from University René Descartes in Paris.

On April 5, 2021 Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCY) (TSX: ONC) reported that it will host a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) webinar discussing AWARE-1 data, the immunotherapeutic effects of pelareorep in breast cancer, and its synergistic activity with CAR T cells in solid tumors (Press release, Oncolytics Biotech, APR 5, 2021, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1129928/000112992821000017/oncy_kolxpr.htm [SID1234577569]). The webinar will take place on Monday, April 12, 2021 at 2:00 pm ET.

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The webinar will feature presentations by Key Opinion Leaders Aleix Prat, M.D., Ph.D. (Clínic Barcelona) and Richard Vile, Ph.D., (Mayo Clinic). Dr. Prat’s portion of the presentation will focus on data from the AWARE-1 window-of-opportunity clinical trial evaluating pelareorep with and without atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in early-stage breast cancer, which will be presented at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting. Dr. Vile will then discuss the results of a preclinical study evaluating pelareorep and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell combination therapy in solid tumors (link to PR, link to poster).
During the event, Oncolytics’ management team will also give a corporate update and discuss the company’s upcoming milestones. Dr. Prat, Dr. Vile, and company management will be available to answer questions following the formal presentations.

To register for the event, please click here.

About the KOLs

Aleix Prat, M.D., Ph.D. is the Head of the Medical Oncology Department of the Hospital Clínic Barcelona (Spain), Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona, Head of the Translational Genomics and Targeted Therapeutics in Solid Tumors Lab at IDIBAPS, and President of the governing board of the Spanish Breast Cancer Cooperative Research Group (SOLTI), which performs clinical trials of excellence in oncology. He was also named a member of the Executive Board of The Breast International Group (BIG) in 2018. BIG is an international non-profit organization that is linked to more than 3,000 hospitals and includes more than 10,000 experts and more than 56 cooperative groups from around the world.
Over his career, Dr. Prat obtained worldwide prestige as a research scientist in the field of breast cancer genomics and biomarker development. In 2008, he became a postdoctoral research associate (2008-2012) at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA) in the Laboratory of Prof. Charles M. Perou, a world-renowned translational researcher in breast cancer. During this postdoctoral experience, he discovered and characterized a new molecular subtype of breast cancer, known as a Claudin-low (Prat et al. Breast Cancer Research 2010; Citations: 1,518). In addition, he contributed to the breast cancer portion of The Cancer Genome Atlas (Nature 2012; Citations: 4,661), which was a landmark molecular characterization study in the field of cancer research.

Richard Vile, Ph.D. is a world-renowned scientist and member of the Oncolytics Scientific Advisory Board with extensive experience studying pelareorep. As a recognized KOL, his research focuses on several areas of immuno-oncology, including oncolytic viruses, adoptive cell therapies (ACTs) such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, and potential synergistic interactions between oncolytic viruses and ACTs. In addition to his role as a professor at the Mayo Clinic ("Mayo"), Dr. Vile is the Director of Mayo’s Immuno-oncology and Gene and Virus Therapy programs and Co-Director of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy program. He also serves on the editorial board of several prestigious scientific journals, including Molecular Therapy, Gene Therapy, The Journal of Gene Medicine, and OncoImmunology. Dr. Vile received his B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and his Ph.D. in Viral Vectors from the University of London.

About AWARE-1
AWARE-1 is an open label window-of-opportunity study in early-stage breast cancer enrolling 38 patients into five cohorts:
•Cohort 1 (n=10), HR+ / HER2- (pelareorep + letrozole)

•Cohort 2 (n=10), HR+ / HER2- (pelareorep + letrozole + atezolizumab)

•Cohort 3 (n=6), TNBC (pelareorep + atezolizumab)

•Cohort 4 (n=6), HR+ / HER2+ (pelareorep + trastuzumab + atezolizumab)

•Cohort 5 (n=6), HR- / HER2+ (pelareorep + trastuzumab + atezolizumab)
The study combines pelareorep, without or with atezolizumab, and the standard of care therapy according to breast cancer subtype. Tumor tissue is collected from patients as part of their initial breast cancer diagnosis, again on day three following initial treatment, and finally at three weeks following treatment, on the day of their mastectomy. Data generated from this study are intended to confirm that pelareorep is acting as a novel immunotherapy, to evaluate potential synergy between pelareorep and checkpoint blockade, and to provide comprehensive biomarker data by breast cancer subtype. The primary endpoint of the study is overall CelTIL score (a measurement of cellularity and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes). Secondary endpoints for the study include CelTIL by breast cancer subtype, safety, and tumor and blood-based biomarkers.
For more information about the AWARE-1 study, refer to View Source
About Pelareorep

Pelareorep is a non-pathogenic, proprietary isolate of the unmodified reovirus: a first-in-class intravenously delivered immuno-oncolytic virus for the treatment of solid tumors and hematological malignancies. The compound induces selective tumor lysis and promotes an inflamed tumor phenotype through innate and adaptive immune responses to treat a variety of cancers and has been demonstrated to be able to escape neutralizing antibodies found in patients.

On April 5, 2021 Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SRNE, "Sorrento") reported the signing of a merger agreement pursuant to which Sorrento will acquire ACEA Therapeutics, Inc. ("ACEA") (Press release, Sorrento Therapeutics, APR 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234577565]). The acquisition will include late clinical stage drug Abivertinib, clinical stage candidate AC0058, preclinical stage candidate AC0939, and ACEA’s extensive proprietary library of small molecules (over 1,000,000 compounds), which potentially have applications for numerous human disease indications, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), B cell lymphomas, systemic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and viral infections. These compounds are being actively studied in clinical trials and/or preclinical models to advance the most promising candidates rapidly to clinical stage development. Abivertinib, a novel small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that selectively targets both a mutant form of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK), was originally identified from ACEA’s compound library. Abivertinib has the potential to improve outcomes in resistant prostate cancer, systemic lupus erythematosus, and various B cell lymphomas in addition to NSCLC, an indication for which a registrational/Phase 3 trial has been completed. It is currently being studied as a Phase 2 treatment for COVID-19-induced respiratory compromise in the US and Brazil. A second clinical candidate, AC0058, is a next generation BTK inhibitor, currently in a Phase 1b trial for Lupus patients in the US, which can potentially be expanded to other autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

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The acquisition will also include ACEA’s state of the art cGMP facility located in Quzhou, China, on a 23-acre campus with five buildings. This facility has successfully manufactured multiple batches of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and final product in capsules for Abivertinib and AC0058 for clinical studies. The ACEA facility currently has capacity to manufacture up to 5,000 kg/year of APIs and 50,000,000 capsules of final drug product.

The ACEA next generation BTKi and other TKI small molecule drug candidates are highly synergistic with Sorrento’s broad biological product pipelines in therapeutic antibodies, antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), autologous chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) and allogeneic dimeric antigen receptor-T (DAR-T) cell therapies, oncolytic viruses and IL-2 immune modulators. The synergy will potentially enable Sorrento to develop many life-saving, combinational drugs for difficult-to-treat human illness in oncology, autoimmune and infectious diseases.

Dr. Henry Ji, Chairman and CEO of Sorrento Therapeutics, stated "The ACEA acquisition will bring us a step closer to developing into a major biopharmaceutical company and we look forward to welcoming the ACEA team into the Sorrento family."

As previously announced on October 16, 2020, Sorrento and ACEA entered into a letter of intent setting forth the terms and conditions by which Sorrento would acquire ACEA. In consideration for the acquisition, at the closing of the merger, ACEA’s equity holders will receive up to an aggregate of $38 million in shares of Sorrento common stock, subject to certain adjustments, based on a price per share calculated in accordance with the merger agreement. In addition to the foregoing consideration, and subject to the achievement of certain clinical and sales milestones (as described below), Sorrento will also pay the ACEA equity holders (i) up to $450,000,000 in additional payments, subject to the receipt of certain regulatory approvals and achievement of certain net sales targets with respect to the assets acquired in the merger and (ii) with respect to specified royalty-bearing products, five to ten percent of the annual net sales thereof, in each case in accordance with the terms of an earn-out agreement. The amount referenced in clause (i) of the preceding sentence includes the amounts that would have otherwise been due to ACEA under that certain License Agreement, dated July 13, 2020, which agreement will terminate in its entirety at the effective time of the merger.

The merger is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval. If the proposed merger is consummated, the issuance of the shares of Sorrento common stock would be made in accordance with an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) thereof and Regulation D and Regulation S thereunder. Such shares of Sorrento common stock would not be registered under the Securities Act and could not be offered or sold without registration unless an exemption from such registration is available. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, any shares of Sorrento common stock.

On April 5, 2021 Vincerx Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: VINC) (the "Company"), reported that it will redeem all of its outstanding public warrants (the "Public Warrants") to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock, $0.0001 par value per share ("Common Stock"), that were issued under the Warrant Agreement, dated as of March 5, 2020 (the "Warrant Agreement"), by and between the Company and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent (the "Warrant Agent"), and that remain outstanding at 5:00 p.m. New York City time on May 5, 2021 (the "Redemption Date") for a redemption price of $0.01 per Public Warrant (the "Redemption Price") (Press release, Vincerx Pharma, APR 5, 2021, View Source [SID1234577564]). Prior to the Redemption Date, the Company’s units, listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "LSACU," will each be separated into one share of Common Stock and one Public Warrant, and be traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbols "LSAC" and "LSACW," respectively.

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Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

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Warrants to purchase Common Stock that were issued under the Warrant Agreement in a private placement and still held by the initial holders thereof or their permitted transferees are not subject to this redemption.

Under the terms of the Warrant Agreement, the Company is entitled to redeem all the outstanding Public Warrants if the last sale price of the Common Stock is at least $16.50 per share for any 20 trading days within any 30-day trading period ending on the third business day prior to the date on which a notice of redemption is given. This share price performance target has been met. At the direction of the Company, the Warrant Agent has delivered a notice of redemption to each of the registered holders of the outstanding Public Warrants.

Each Public Warrant may be exercised by the holders thereof until 5:00 p.m. New York City time on the Redemption Date, to purchase one-half (1/2) of a fully paid and non-assessable share of Common Stock underlying such warrant, at the exercise price of $11.50 per whole share of Common Stock. Pursuant to the Warrant Agreement, a holder may exercise its warrants only for a whole number of shares. This means that only an even number of Public Warrants may be exercised at any given time by a holder. Any Public Warrants that remain unexercised following 5:00 p.m. New York City time on the Redemption Date will be void and no longer exercisable, and the holders of those Public Warrants will be entitled to receive only the redemption price of $0.01 per warrant. 6,563,767 Public Warrants were initially issued by the Company, exercisable for an aggregate of 3,281,883 shares of Common Stock at a price of $11.50 per share, representing a total of approximately $37.7 million in potential proceeds to the Company.

None of the Company, its board of directors or employees has made or is making any representation or recommendation to any holder of the Public Warrants as to whether to exercise or refrain from exercising any Public Warrants.

The shares of Common Stock underlying the Public Warrants have been registered by the Company under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and are covered by a registration statement on Form S-1 filed with, and declared effective by, the Securities and Exchange Commission (File No. 333-252589).

Questions concerning redemption and exercise of the Public Warrants can be directed to Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, 1 State Street, 30th Floor, New York, New York 10004, Attention: Compliance Department, telephone number (212) 509-4000.

No Offer or Solicitation
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any offer of any of the Company’s securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.