On May 2, 2017 Magenta Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing therapies to improve and expand the use of curative stem cell transplantation for more patients, reported rapid progress in advancing the company’s strategic vision, including the completion of a $50 million Series B financing; in-licensing a clinical-stage program from Novartis to support the use of stem cell transplantation in a variety of disease settings; and a strategic partnership with Be The Match BioTherapiesSM, an organization offering solutions for delivering autologous and allogeneic cellular therapies (Press release, Magenta Therapeutics, MAY 2, 2017, View Source [SID1234520733]).

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The financing announced today is intended to fuel development of innovative product candidates across multiple aspects of transplantation medicine, including more precise preparation of patients, stem cell harvesting and stem cell expansion. The Series B round, which was oversubscribed, was led by GV (formerly Google Ventures), with participation from all existing investors, including Atlas Venture, Third Rock Ventures, Partners Innovation Fund and Access Industries. The financing also included Casdin Capital and other crossover investors, as well as Be The Match BioTherapies, a subsidiary of National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)/Be The Match, the world’s leading organization focused on saving lives through bone marrow and umbilical cord blood transplantation.

"Magenta has quickly established itself as a nexus of innovation in stem cell science, catalyzing interest in this area of medicine with the recognition that improvements will have profound impact on patients," said Jason Gardner, D. Phil., chief executive officer, president and cofounder of Magenta Therapeutics. "We aspire to accelerate products that could unleash the potential of transplantation to more patients, including those with autoimmune diseases, genetic blood disorders and cancer. The resounding interest in Magenta from such a high-quality set of investors is a testament to our solid progress since launch, including building a world-class team and a robust pipeline, and generating promising early data."

MGTA-456: Investigational Product Addressing Significant Unmet Need in Stem Cell Transplant
The clinical-stage program in-licensed by Magenta from Novartis, MGTA-456 (formerly HSC835), aims to expand the number of cord blood stem cells used in transplants to achieve superior clinical outcomes compared to standard transplant procedures, and to enable more patients to benefit from a transplant. Under this agreement, Magenta gains rights to use MGTA-456 in selected applications and will develop MGTA-456 in multiple diseases, including immune and blood diseases.

Early results published in Science[1] demonstrated the ability of MGTA-456 to significantly increase the number of umbilical cord blood stem cells. Clinical results reported in Cell Stem Cell[2] demonstrated that this approach yielded an increased expansion of stem cells.

John E. Wagner, M.D., executive medical director of the Bone Marrow Transplantation Program at the University of Minnesota and the study’s lead author, stated: "MGTA-456 markedly shortens time to recovery, addressing one of the most significant challenges in stem cell transplantation today. MGTA-456 achieved a remarkable increase in the number of blood-forming stem cells, greater than that observed by all other methods that have been tested to date. This product has the potential to further improve cord blood transplant outcomes."

Be The Match BioTherapies Strategic Partnership Agreement
Magenta and Be The Match BioTherapies also announced today that in addition to the equity investment, the two organizations have initiated a collaboration to support their shared goals of improving transplant medicine. Magenta and Be The Match BioTherapies will explore opportunities to work together across all of Magenta’s research efforts, from discovery through clinical development. Under this agreement, Magenta may leverage Be The Match BioTherapies’ capabilities, including its cell therapy delivery platform, industry relationships, clinical trial design and management, and patient outcomes data derived from the NMDP/Be The Match, which operates the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world. NMDP/Be The Match has a network of more than 486 organizations that support marrow transplant worldwide, including 178 transplant centers in the United States and more than 45 international donor centers and cooperative registries.

"We are proud to have made our first equity investment as an organization in Magenta Therapeutics, and we share a vision to improve and advance the use of curative stem cell transplantation for patients with a wide range of diseases," said Amy Ronneberg, president of Be The Match Biotherapies.

Preclincal investigations are ongoing in combining BI1361849/CV9202 with checkpoint inhibitor or PD1 after chemo-radiation in NSCLC (Company Pipeline, CureVac, MAY 2, 2017, View Source [SID1234518776]).

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On May 2, 2017 ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZIOP), a biopharmaceutical company focused on new immunotherapies, reported that an investigator-initiated Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a Phase 1 trial infusing the Company’s CD33-specific CAR+ T therapy for relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is now active, with the first patient to be enrolled in the study expected to begin treatment in the third quarter of 2017 (Press release, Ziopharm, MAY 2, 2017, View Source [SID1234518785]). The CD33-specific CAR+ T cells incorporate a kill switch designed to eliminate the modified T cells under potential adverse safety conditions.

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"Relapsed AML is an aggressive disease with very poor outcomes," said William G. Wierda, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Center Medical Director, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and principal investigator for the CD33 study. "In vivo preclinical animal studies have demonstrated that these CAR-T cells targeting CD33 exhibit specific killing of AML cells, eliminating disease burden, and significantly enhancing survival compared to controls, and I look forward to evaluating the safety and effectiveness of this gene therapy for patients with AML."

Francois Lebel, M.D., Executive Vice President, Research and Development, Chief Medical Officer at ZIOPHARM added, "CAR-T cells expressing CD33 have shown promise in preclinical studies, but to-date, there has been limited experience in humans, representing a significant white space for us in treating AML. We look forward to seeing the positive preclinical results with our CD33-specific CAR-T cells translate to the clinic for relapsed/refractory AML patients who have far too few treatment options. In parallel with this Phase 1 study, we have also begun preclinical studies to evaluate rapid non-viral manufacturing of CAR+ T CD33-specific therapy for treatment of AML under point-of-care."

AML is a rapidly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow characterized by uncontrolled proliferation of immature blast cells with multiple associated gene mutations. The American Cancer Society estimates that there were approximately 20,000 new cases of AML and over 10,000 patient deaths from AML in the United States in 2016. A majority of AML patients relapse or present with refractory disease and have overall poor prognosis.
This will be the second CAR target for genetically modified T cells to be studied at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center under the research and development agreement among ZIOPHARM, Intrexon Corporation (NYSE:XON), and MD Anderson.

On May 1, 2017 Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ:AEZS) (TSX:AEZS) (the "Company") reported that the ZoptEC Phase 3 clinical study of Zoptrex (zoptarelin doxorubicin) in women with locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic endometrial cancer did not achieve its primary endpoint of demonstrating a statistically significant increase in the median period of overall survival of patients treated with Zoptrex as compared to patients treated with doxorubicin (Press release, AEterna Zentaris, MAY 1, 2017, View Source [SID1234518774]).

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Dr. Richard Sachse, the Company’s Chief Scientific Officer, stated, "The median overall survival period for patients treated with Zoptrex was 10.9 months compared to 10.8 months for patients treated with doxorubicin. This is not a statistically significant, clinically meaningful increase in overall survival and thus the ZoptEC Phase 3 clinical study did not meet its primary endpoint. In addition, Zoptrex generally performed no better than the comparator drug with respect to the secondary efficacy endpoints. For example, the median period of progression-free survival of the patients in the Zoptrex arm of the study was identical to that for patients in the doxorubicin arm. Finally, there was no meaningful difference between the two arms with respect to safety; the number of patients with cardiac disorders was similar – eight in the Zoptrex arm and nine in the doxorubicin arm. Therefore, the results of the study are not supportive to pursue regulatory approval."

David A. Dodd, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, stated, "We are very disappointed with the outcome of the ZoptEC Phase 3 clinical study. Based on this outcome, we do not anticipate conducting clinical trials of Zoptrex with respect to any other indications. I would like to thank my colleagues within Aeterna Zentaris and our external team of clinical investigators for their dedication to and contributions on this project." Commenting on the Company’s plans, Mr. Dodd continued, "Our focus has now shifted entirely to filing our new drug application for Macrilen and, if the product is approved, to its commercial launch as soon as possible. We will also optimize our resources to be consistent with our focus on Macrilen-related efforts. We continue to believe in the potential that Macrilen provides for us to become a focused specialty pharmaceutical company. Our intention is to submit the Macrilen NDA in the third quarter of 2017 and, if the product receives FDA approval, to commercially launch the product in the first quarter of 2018."

On May 1, 2017 SignalRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical-stage company developing novel small-molecules therapeutics to inhibit key orthogonal and synergistic oncotargets for the treatment of cancer, reported the presentation last week of its novel approach to immune-oncology treatments (Press release, SignalRx, MAY 1, 2017, http://www.ireachcontent.com/news-releases/signalrx-discloses-its-novel-immuno-oncology-program-approach-at-the-12th-annual-drug-discovery-chemistry-2017-meeting-620879733.html [SID1234527322]). The presentation by Donald L. Durden, MD, PhD, senior scientific advisor for SignalRx, occurred at 10:30 am on Thursday April 27th, 2017, at the Drug Discovery Chemistry 2017 meeting in San Diego, CA.

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The presentation was entitled"Dual PI3K/BRD4 inhibitor (SF2523) for immuno-oncology to suppress MYC and the MQ immunosuppressive environment". SignalRx’s program provides a novel approach to immune-oncology and is summarized below:

SF2523 is the only known nM potent dual PI3K/BET bromodomain inhibitor; this provides maximal suppression of the oncogenic transcription factor MYC via enhanced MYC degradation (PI3K inhibition) coupled with decreased production of MYC by inhibiting BRD4 which inhibits transcription of MYC.
MYC has been shown by others to regulate the antitumor immune response through immune-oncology checkpoint receptors CD47 and PD-L1; we have demonstrated that SF2523 reduces the expression of PD-L1 in hepatocellular carcinoma cells, likely through the suppression of MYC.
SF2523 inhibits PI3K isoforms shown by others to regulate the immune suppression found in the tumor microenvironment
SF2523 blocks the transition of M1 macrophages to the immune-suppressing M2 macrophage stage which is expected to augment antitumor immunity
SF2523 is the only dual PI3K/BRD4 inhibitor with demonstrated in vivo antitumor, antimetastatic and immune activating activity.
SignalRx is also seeking partnering opportunities to accelerate the development of its programs and advance novel anticancer therapeutics into first-in-man clinical trials based on the promising profile and mode of action of its inhibitors. Since these are single molecules with a single PK/PD and toxicity profile, there is a great opportunity to streamline their development alone and in combination therapies.