On May 14, 2018 Atossa Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ:ATOS) ("Atossa" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutics and delivery methods to treat breast cancer and other breast conditions, reported it will host a corporate conference call to discuss the Company’s business on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 4:30 EDT (Press release, Atossa Genetics, MAY 14, 2018, http://ir.atossagenetics.com/news/detail/853/atossa-genetics-to-host-corporate-conference-call-wednesday-may-16-2018-at-4-30pm-edt [SID1234526576]). The call is being provided so that stockholders and potential investors can hear directly from senior management about the Company’s business with a focus on recent developments.

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Due to expected high call attendance, participants are asked to preregister for the call through the following link: View Source Please note that registered participants will receive their dial in number upon registration and will dial directly into the call without delay. Those without internet access or who are unable to pre-register may dial in by calling: 1-844-824-3830 (domestic), 1-412-317-5140 (international) and Canada Toll Free: 1-855-669-9657. Callers should ask to be joined into the Atossa Genetics call.

On May 14, 2018 Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (Allogene), a biotechnology company with a mission to catalyze the next revolution of cell therapy through the advancement of allogeneic CAR T therapies for blood cancers and solid tumors, reported a poster presentation highlighting preclinical research for its allogeneic pipeline programs (Press release, Allogene, MAY 14, 2018, View Source [SID1234526594]). The presentation will occur during the 21st ASGCT (Free ASGCT Whitepaper) Annual Meeting, which is taking place in Chicago May 16-19, 2018.

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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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Presentation Details:

Title: Development of an In Vitro Cynomolgus Macaque Allogeneic CAR T Cell Platform: Working towards a Reliable In Vivo Allogeneic Model to Assess Safety and Efficacy (Poster No. 131)
Category: Cancer – Targeted Gene & Cell Therapy I
Session Date & Time: Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 5:30 PM – Stevens Salon C, D
Authors: Diego A. Vargas-Inchaustegui1, Rory Dai1, Alexandre Juillerat2, Christopher Do1, Kris Poulsen1, Thomas Pertel1, Barbra Sasu1

1Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., South San Francisco, CA,
2Cellectis, Inc., New York, NY

In April 2018, Allogene announced that it had acquired Pfizer’s allogeneic CAR T portfolio which included the rights to 16 preclinical CAR T assets licensed from Cellectis and Servier and one clinical asset licensed from Servier, UCART19, an allogeneic CAR T therapy that is being developed for treatment of CD19-expressing hematological malignancies. In partnership with Servier, UCART19 is initially being developed in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and is currently in Phase 1.

On May 14, 2018 ABIVAX (Euronext Paris: FR0012333284 – ABVX), a biotechnology company harnessing the immune system to develop a functional cure for HIV as well as treatments for inflammatory/autoimmune diseases and cancer, reported the completion of enrollment of its Phase IIA clinical trial ABX464-101 in 30 patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (Press release, ABIVAX, MAY 13, 2018, View Source [SID1234526552]).

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"ABIVAX is very pleased to announce the completion of enrolment in this first clinical trial exploring ABX464 for treatment of inflammatory indications," said Prof. Dr. Hartmut Ehrlich, M.D., chief executive officer at ABIVAX. "I would like to highlight the outstanding enthusiasm and dedication of Prof. Dr. Severine Vermeire, M.D., the Principal Investigator of this multinational trial and past president of ECCO (European Crohn’d and Colitis Organization), and thank the clinical trial sites, which kept recruitment on target, allowing us to report the top-line results from this important clinical trial in the autumn of this year," added Dr. Ehrlich.

ABX464-101 is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial (Phase 2a proof-ofconcept study) aimed at evaluating the safety and efficacy of ABX464 50 mg given once daily versus placebo for two months in subjects with moderate-to-severe active ulcerative colitis who have failed or are intolerant to immunomodulators, anti-TNFα, vedolizumab and/or corticosteroids. This clinical study is being conducted in 17 centers in seven European countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic. As of today, 30 out of the planned 30 patients have been randomized 2:1 to receive ABX464 or placebo, respectively. The study employs state-of-the art
technologies for monitoring potential treatment effects, including numerical recording of the colonoscopies with centralized reading.

ABX464-102 is a 12 months open label follow-up study for patients who completed ABX464-101, and 10 patients are already recruited into this clinical trial as of today. The rationale for the ABX464-101 study was derived from encouraging preclinical data, which demonstrated ABX464 had a strong anti-inflammatory effect. In macrophages, this effect was shown to be mediated by a 50-fold increase of the expression of IL-22, a cytokine known as a potent
suppressor of inflammatory processes, and a ten-fold increase of miR124 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs). mIR124 is a micro-RNA with potent anti-inflammatory properties and has recently been described as a tumor suppressor gene. Inflammation is a cornerstone of IBD, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. When evaluated in a mouse model of IBD, ABX464 demonstrated a long-lasting effect in preventing the typical
symptoms of inflammatory colitis, including histological changes1
.
Prof. Dr. Severine Vermeire, M.D., Head of the IBD center at the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium and Principal Investigator of the study, said: "reaching our recruitment goal of 30 patients marks an important step as there is a strong need to develop additional drugs in this indication; too many patients still do not respond or stop responding to current treatments. We are looking forward to the top-line data from this study and also to transferring as many patients as possible onto the one year open-label extension study with ABX464, which will provide us with very important long-term safety and efficacy data."

Ulcerative colitis is a debilitating inflammatory bowel disease in adults and children, with limited therapeutic management options for many patients. There is an estimated number of close to 1 million patients with ulcerative colitis in the United States, and global pharmaceutical sales for this disease are estimated to be around 5.7 billion US$ in 2017.

On May 11, 2018 Leap Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:LPTX), a biotechnology company developing targeted and immuno-oncology therapeutics, reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 (Press release, Leap Therapeutics, MAY 11, 2018, View Source;p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=2348662 [SID1234526528]).

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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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"We had a strong first quarter, as we presented data from our study of DKN-01 as a monotherapy and in combination with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in patients with esophagogastric cancer, and dosed the first patients in new trials for both of our programs," commented Christopher K. Mirabelli, Ph.D, President and Chief Executive Officer of Leap Therapeutics. "We also successfully completed a public offering, strengthening our balance sheet and enabling further growth of the company."

Recent Pipeline Highlights:

DKN-01:

Completed enrollment of the dose escalation phase and presented interim data of a clinical trial evaluating DKN-01 and KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in patients with advanced esophagogastric cancer. Data from the dose escalation phase indicated that the combination was well tolerated with early signals of clinical activity. In the high-dose DKN-01 cohort, one of four evaluable patients naïve to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy had a partial response with a 66% reduction in target tumor volume. This patient has a tumor phenotype which is typically less responsive to anti-PD-1 therapy. The study is now enrolling two expansion cohorts in patients with esophagogastric cancer who are naïve to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy (n=40) and patients who are refractory to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy (n=15).
Presented data on the monotherapy activity of DKN-01 in patients with advanced esophagogastric cancer. Of 16 patients evaluable by central imaging analysis, two patients had a partial response and five patients had stable disease, representing a total disease control rate of 43.8%. One patient who had failed prior investigational immunotherapies had a partial response on DKN-01 monotherapy and remained on study for over a year.
Enrolled the first patients in a clinical study evaluating DKN-01 as a monotherapy and in combination with paclitaxel in patients with endometrioid gynecologic cancers, a population of cancers with frequent alterations of the Wnt signaling pathway resulting in increased expression of DKK1.
TRX518:

Enrolled the first patients in a clinical trial evaluating TRX518 in combination with gemcitabine chemotherapy or in combination with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) or Opdivo (nivolumab), anti-PD-1 therapies marketed by Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada) or Bristol-Myers Squibb, respectively.
Business Highlights

Completed a public offering for $16.1 million in gross proceeds, which supports further growth of the company and extends the cash runway into the fourth quarter 2019.
DKN-01 Program Update Call:

On Friday, May 18, 2018 at 12:00PM ET Leap will be hosting a conference call and webcast for the investment community with DKN-01 clinical investigators where the Company will provide a program update. To access the conference call, please dial (866) 589-0108 (US/Canada Toll-Free) or (409) 231-2048 (international) and refer to conference ID 7196723. The presentation will also be webcast live and will be available under "Events & Presentations" in the Investor section of the Company’s website, View Source A replay of the webcast will be available on the Company’s website approximately two hours after the event and will be available for a limited time.

Selected First Quarter 2018 Financial Results

Net loss was $10.6 million for the first quarter 2018, compared to $9.4 million for the same period in 2017. This increase was primarily due to a non-cash change in the fair value of the warrant liability offset by a decrease in stock-based compensation expense.

Research and development expenses were $4.2 million for the first quarter 2018, compared to $6.4 million for the same period in 2017. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease in stock-based compensation expense and a decrease in manufacturing costs related to clinical trial material.

General and administrative expenses were $2.1 million for the first quarter 2018, compared to $3.8 million for the same period in 2017. This decrease was primarily due to a decrease in stock-based compensation expense and a decrease in legal, audit and consulting fees.

Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $35.4 million at March 31, 2018. Research and development incentive receivables, current and long term, totaled approximately $1.6 million at March 31, 2018.

On May 11, 2018 RXi Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ: RXII) reported that it has entered into a research collaboration with Iovance Biotherapeutics to evaluate the potential synergies with RXi’s novel sd-rxRNA therapeutic compounds and Iovance’s autologous cell therapy based on tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) for the use in the treatment of cancer (Press release, RXi Pharmaceuticals, MAY 11, 2018, View Source [SID1234526530]).

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Dr. Geert Cauwenbergh, President and CEO of RXi Pharmaceuticals, stated: "Iovance is the leading company developing novel cancer immunotherapies based on tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) technology. Our agreement will allow Iovance to explore their proprietary TIL technology and our proprietary sd-rxRNA technology. Under this research collaboration, we will further investigate and expand the recently published data with TIL and sd-rxRNA products, which demonstrated potentially enhanced tumor killing activity of TIL." He added that: "As such, we may be able to improve potency of the TIL product and also possibly broaden the applicability of TIL in other tumors types. We see this new research collaboration with the highly experienced Iovance team using TIL, as a major step to advance life-saving treatment approaches for solid tumors, a space where there is still a dire need for improved therapies for these patients."