On March 22, 2018 Astellas Pharma Inc. (President and CEO: Yoshihiko Hatanaka, "Astellas" ) reported that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has granted Orphan Drug Designation to gilteritinib for the treatment of FLT3mut+ Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), the drug’s prospective indication (Press release, Astellas, MAR 22, 2018, View Source [SID1234536693]).

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Orphan drug designation system in Japan aims to support the development of drugs for diseases that, despite there being a significant medical need for treatments, affect only a small number of patients, and for which research and development is virtually nonexistent. As stipulated in Article 77 of the Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices, and Other Therapeutic Products Act of Japan, the designation is granted by the minister of Health, Labour and Welfare for drugs that meet the designation criteria which include the following: the number of patients who may use the drug is less than 50,000 in Japan; there is no alternative appropriate drug or treatment in Japan; high efficacy or safety is expected compared to existing products. Specific measures to support the development of orphan drugs include subsidies for research and development expenditures, prioritized consultation regarding clinical development, reduced consultation fees, tax incentives, priority review of applications, reduced application fees, and extended registration validity period1

AML is a cancer that impacts the blood and bone marrow, and its incidence increases with age. In Japan, approximately 5,500 patients are diagnosed with AML each year2. Gilteritinib is an investigational compound that has demonstrated inhibitory activity against FLT3 internal tandem duplication (ITD) as well as FLT3 tyrosine kinase domain (TKD), two common types of FLT3 mutations that are seen in approximately one-third of patients with AML. Further, gilteritinib has also demonstrated inhibition of the AXL receptor in AML cell lines.

Astellas will continue to develop gilteritinib to provide it to FLT3mut+ AML patients as early as possible.

(1): View Source
(2): KantarHealth. TREATMENT ARCHITECTURE: JAPAN LEUKEMIA, ACUTE MYELOID. CancerMPact Japan, February 2017.

On March 22, 2018 OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB:OBMP) ("OncBioMune" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of a proprietary immunotherapy cancer vaccine technology and targeted cancer therapies, reported that the Company received comments from a recent meeting of the Scientific Review Committee (SRC) responsible for reviewing the planned Phase 2 clinical trial of ProscaVax for early-stage prostate cancer to be hosted at a teaching hospital of Harvard University Medical School in Boston, MA (Press release, Oncbiomune, MAR 22, 2018, View Source [SID1234525392]).

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The SRC had minimal comments regarding the protocol, for which OncBioMune and investigators are presently making the suggested revisions.

"We greatly appreciate the knowledge and expertise of the SRC to request minor revisions to the protocol, advice that we believe is highly supportive of the clinical trial," commented Dr. Jonathan Head, Chief Executive Officer at OncBioMune. "We don’t foresee any problems in responding to the comments and making adjustments in the protocol in the upcoming days and look forward to moving one step closer to initiating the trial."
ProscaVax is OncBioMune’s lead immunotherapy candidate consisting of a combination of prostate cancer associated prostate specific antigen (PSA) with the biological adjuvants interleukin-2 (IL-2) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). The Company has successfully completed a Phase 1a clinical trial of ProscaVax in hormone-naïve and hormone-independent recurrent prostate cancer patients with increasing PSA. The planned Phase 2 study at the teaching hospital of Harvard University Medical School is being designed to treat prostate cancer patients in the "active surveillance" group, representing the first-ever clinical study of a therapeutic vaccine for patients in this group to the Company’s knowledge. Active surveillance is a disease management option for patients with localized prostate cancer that elect to work with their doctor to monitor the disease for progression before taking any intervention measures, such as surgery or radiotherapy.

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On March 22, 2018 MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR; Prime Standard Segment, TecDAX; OTC: MPSYY) reported that it filed a Registration Statement on Form F-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed offering of ordinary shares in the form of American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") in the United States (Press release, MorphoSys, MAR 22, 2018, View Source [SID1234556339]). The final number of ADSs to be offered and the price for the offering have not yet been determined.

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MorphoSys’s ordinary shares are listed on the Prime Standard Segment in Frankfurt, Germany. Application has been made to list the ADSs to be offered in the proposed offering on the Nasdaq Global Market in the United States under the ticker symbol "MOR".

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Leerink Partners LLC, are acting as lead book-running managers, and Berenberg Capital Markets, LLC and JMP Securities LLC are acting as co-managers for the proposed ADS offering.

A Registration Statement relating to these securities has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. The securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the Registration Statement becomes effective.

The securities referred to in this release are to be offered only by means of a prospectus. A copy of the preliminary prospectus, when available, can be obtained from Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, telephone: 1-866-471-2526, facsimile: 1-212-902-9316 or by e-mailing [email protected]; J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, telephone: 1-866-803-9204; Leerink Partners LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, One Federal Street, 37th Floor, Boston, MA 02110, by telephone at 1-800-808-7525, ext. 6132, or by emailing [email protected].

This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

On March 22, 2018 BerGenBio ASA (OSE: BGBIO), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel, selective AXL kinase inhibitors as a potential cornerstone of combination cancer therapy, reported that the Company will be presenting an overview of the three ongoing phase II trials combining the Company’s selective AXL inhibitor bemcentinib with the anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA at the 3rd Annual Immuno-Oncology Summit Europe, London, UK, today at 10:05-10:35 GMT (Press release, BerGenBio, MAR 22, 2018, View Source [SID1234525082]).

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The presentation will be delivered by Dr Julia Schoelermann, Assoc. Director Business Development & Partnering, and the presented slides are available on the Company’s website: www.bergenbio.com.

The talk will discuss the preclinical rationale for the studies and summarise clinical data to date.

On March 22, 2018 Evotec OAI AG, Hamburg, Germany (Neuer Markt: EVT), a supplier of integrated high-value added drug discovery services, and Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc., a drug discovery and development company (Nasdaq: RIGL), reported the signing of a medicinal chemistry agreement for the optimisation of small molecules focused on inhibitors of ubiquitin ligases (Press release, Evotec, MAR 22, 2018, View Source;announcements/press-releases/p/evotec-oai-and-rigel-pharmaceuticals-enter-into-medicinal-chemistry-agreement-to-identify-a-new-class-of-anti-cancer-compounds-called-ubiquitin-ligase-inhibitors-4642 [SID1234525393]). Ubiquitin ligases are involved in cell division and the progression of certain cancers. Research on this target class is an important new area in the field of oncology. Rigel is a leader in the field of ubiquitin ligases and their applications in oncologic, inflammatory and viral diseases.

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Under the terms of the agreement, Evotec OAI will use their leading-edge integrated drug discovery platform to select and synthesise lead compounds with optimised properties for Rigel to screen against their target proteins, and to identify novel scaffolds from Evotec OAI’s portfolio of validated chemistries, with the aim of identifying an IND candidate in 12 months. Initially, Evotec OAI’s molecular modelling expertise and computational platform will be used to perform SAR (structure activity relationship) analysis including pharmacophore modelling and in silico docking studies on selected Rigel small molecule drug leads. These proprietary compounds have been identified as most active in Rigel’s anti-cancer programme on ubiquitin ligases. This information will be used to select and synthesise the additional lead compounds.

Additionally, Evotec OAI will use their computational chemistry expertise to analyse Rigel’s corporate library and to identify additional scaffolds to increase the overall diversity of the library whilst retaining the drug and lead-like properties. Through the agreement, Rigel will also gain access to Evotec OAI’s lead discovery library for screening against the ligase and additional Rigel targets.

Rigel will provide funding to Evotec OAI for services conducted during this programme. In addition, Evotec OAI may receive future milestone payments if discovery projects meet defined goals and products are commercialised.

"We look forward to building a partnership with Rigel in their very exciting area of ubiquitin ligase research," said Mario Polywka, Chief Operating Officer of Evotec OAI. "Using our world class drug discovery platform will enable us to assist Rigel in accelerating their drug discovery programme."

"Rigel has built a very strong capability in ubiquitin ligase research and drug development, including the design of numerous biochemical and cellular assays to analyze the biology and proteomics of ligases, a robust and efficient high throughput screening program, a focused chemistry program with promising initial chemical hits and an experienced preclinical oncology development team," said James M. Gower, Rigel’s President and Chief Executive Officer. "This collaboration marks our second this month in the area of ubiquitin ligases, and Evotec’s expertise in computational and medicinal chemistry will contribute greatly to our ability to rapidly identify a clinical candidate in this promising new area of research."