On July 8, 2022 Herantis Pharma Plc reported that has appointed Antti Vuolanto (born 1975) as CEO as of 22July2022 (Press release, Herantis Pharma, JUL 8, 2022, View Source,c3598918 [SID1234616555]). Frans Wuite will continue as interim CEO of Herantis Pharma Plc until 21July2022 and as Member of the Board also thereafter.

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Antti Vuolanto has acted as the Chief Operating Officer of Herantis Pharma Plc since 2018. Vuolanto graduated as Doctor of Science in Technology at Aalto University, Finland in 2004 in biochemistry and bioprocess technology. He has vast experience in biological drug development, gene therapy products, in-vitro diagnostics, and bioinformatics.

"The Board of Directors commenced the CEO recruitment process in January this year. I am very pleased that, after careful evaluation, we found an internal successor within the company who is well equipped to take over the role of CEO. As a result of his management position in the company, Antti Vuolanto has strong experience and knowledge of Herantis’ business and strategic development, as well as due to his background, expertise in the company’s field of business, research, and product development. Antti has also demonstrated his commitment to the company and its development over the past few years. We thank Frans Wuite for his contribution as interim CEO of Herantis and wish Antti all the best in his new future role," says Timo Veromaa, Chairman of the Board of Herantis.

"It has been an honour to be closely involved in the development of Herantis and the company’s strategy over the last few years and to participate in the important work Herantis is doing in developing disease modifying therapies for Parkinson’s Disease. In my new role, I am able to utilize my knowledge of Herantis’ industry, business and strategic development, and I am excited about the opportunity to participate in Herantis’ next phases in a new role as CEO. I thank the Board of Directors of Herantis for the trust it has shown," says Antti Vuolanto.

On July 8, 2022 Exact Sciences Corp. (Nasdaq: EXAS), a leading provider of cancer screening and diagnostic tests, reported that the company plans to release its second quarter 2022 financial results after the close of the U.S. financial markets on August 2, 2022 (Press release, Exact Sciences, JUL 8, 2022, View Source [SID1234616553]). Following the release, company management will host a webcast and conference call at 5 p.m. ET to discuss financial results and business progress.

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Second quarter 2022 webcast & conference call details

An archive of the webcast will be available at www.exactsciences.com. A replay of the conference call will be available by calling 800-770-2030 domestically or +1 647-362-9199 internationally. The access code for the replay of the call is 4437608. The webcast, conference call, and replay are open to all interested parties.

On July 8, 2022 GlyTherix reported that it has commenced an exciting new collaboration with the GastroEsophageal Malignancies Investigator Network Initiative (GEMINI) to test its Miltuximab monoclonal antibody therapies in gastroesophageal cancers (Press release, Glytherix, JUL 8, 2022, View Source [SID1234616534]). GEMINI, backed by the Torrey Coast Foundation, is a multi-institution collaboration of 22 scientific and clinical investigators dedicated to developing innovative new strategies to treat gastroesophageal malignancies.

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Dr Sandra Ryeom, Associate Professor in the Division of Surgical Sciences in the Department of Surgery at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the Scientific Director of GEMINI said, "GEMINI was created to accelerate the clinical trials of new therapies for gastroesophageal malignancies. We have established a network of preclinical and clinical investigators, with expertise in pre-clinical drug screening using in vitro and in vivo models, together with clinical investigators who have led Phase I clinical trials using targeted therapies in combination with immunotherapy and chemotherapy. We have exciting early data about GPC-1 expression in gastroesophageal malignancies and we look forward to testing GlyTherix’s therapies in our models".

Dr Brad Walsh said "GEMINI is an outstanding example of scientific and clinical collaboration to accelerate novel treatments into the clinic. Our Miltuximab therapy has proven safe in our First-in-Human clinical trial and we are looking forward to establishing its efficacy in the treatment of solid tumors. Gastroesophageal cancer is a significant unmet need and we hope that the preclinical data we obtain from this collaboration will provide the data to progress Miltuximab into clinical trials for these patients".

On July 7, 2022 Zhiyi Biotech reported that it has raised $15 million in its B++ funding round (Press release, Guangzhou Zhiyi Biotech, JUL 7, 2022, View Source [SID1234616554]). The funds will be used to boost the clinical development of the company’s live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) pipelines. It’s worth mentioning that Zhiyi has successfully completed a total of $45 Million in B, B+ and B++ funding , with investors including Qingkong SinoKing Capital, SDIC Venture Capital, KIP etc.

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Zhiyi is a clinical-stage biotech leading in LBPs in China. It has built up a complete technical and industrial platform, covering from the isolation and identification of new functional strains to the development of innovative LBPs. Notably, the lead drug candidate in Zhiyi’s pipelines, SK08, is the first LBP developed on a unique bacterial strain Bacteroides Fragilis, and whose clinical progress is ahead of other LBPs in China. Phase II clinical trial of SK08 carried out in China to treat IBS-D is expected to be completed this year, and phase Ib/II trial of SK08 combined with PD-1 inhibitor for advance solid tumor has been initiated already. Meanwhile, several products are undergoing IND filing to both FDA and NMPA. More programs are expected to enter clinical stage in the foreseeing year.

"We are grateful to have the support and trust from our investors," said Dr. Ye Wang, CEO of Zhiyi Biotech. " The progress in our pipeline is attributed to our team’s continuous effort and persistence in R&D. Zhiyi has been always focusing on the unmet medical needs and dedicating to develop accessible drugs to benefit more patients. We are looking forward to strengthening our international collaboration with peer companies, to promote development of the whole LBPs industry.

On July 7, 2022 Kernal Biologics, Inc. (Kernal Bio) — a development-stage mRNA-technology company developing cancer therapeutics designed to improve patients’ survival rate and quality of life — reported the completion of a $25 million Series A financing led by Hummingbird Ventures. Amgen Ventures, HBM Genomics and Civilization Ventures along with other VCs, family offices and high net worth individuals also participated in the round (Press release, Kernal Biologics, JUL 7, 2022, View Source [SID1234616552]).

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The new capital will extend Kernal’s mRNA 2.0 platform and support the filing of an IND for Kernal’s immuno-oncology candidate KR-335. In connection with the financing, Firat Ileri, Managing Partner of Hummingbird Ventures joins the board.

"We have closely followed the work of the Kernal Bio team over the past few years and we are excited to see them bring their mRNA technology to fruition in an area of medicine with high unmet medical need," said Firat Ileri, Managing Partner of Hummingbird Ventures. "Kernal Bio is building on the success stories of Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech with legacy mRNA technologies. We are delighted to partner with them to bring this innovative approach to cancer patients."

"There’s a major unmet need to improve outcomes for cancer patients and Kernal Bio has built a strong rational for the use of its novel mRNA technology in cancer therapeutics," said Kernal Bio Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Yusuf Erkul, M.D. "This financing further validates that rational. Our breakthrough onco-selective mRNA approach can enable specific protein expression in malignant cells, widening the therapeutic window of mRNAs in oncology."

Additionally, Manfred Kraus Ph.D., who was previously the Scientific Senior Director at the Tumor Microenvironment Thematic Research Center at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), joins the company as Vice President of Research and Development. Before BMS, Dr. Kraus was a Director at Pfizer’s Oncology Research Unit where he led the in vivo pharmacology teams supporting the oncology portfolio from new target identification to clinical proof of concept. Previously, he worked in the oncology departments at Astra-Zeneca, Merck & Co., and Serono.

Dr. Kraus earned his Ph.D. in immunology with Dr. Klaus Rajewsky at the University of Cologne in Germany, followed by post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School investigating the role of B cell receptor signaling in mature B lymphocytes. His scientific accomplishments include the discovery of the tonic BCR-mediated survival signal in mature B cells. Dr. Kraus pushed our understanding of the role of ITAM and non-ITAM phosphorylation in the CD79a/b signaling subunit of the B cell receptor plus advanced and mentored technical innovation such as conditional gene-targeting, reversible RNAi in mice and multi-parametric flow cytometry. He is an author on 27 peer-reviewed articles and an inventor on four patents.

"We are thrilled to have Dr. Kraus join Kernal as he brings extensive drug development experience in oncology which will help us to expand our mRNA 2.0 platform and advance our lead program. Dr. Kraus will oversee the expansion of our R&D team as well as the advancement of our therapeutic programs into the clinic," said Burak Yilmaz, M.S., Co-founder and President of Kernal Bio.