Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate

SHANGHAI, March 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai Juncell Therapeutics Co., Ltd. (Juncell Therapeutics), a clinical-stage biotech developing innovative IL-2-independent Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) therapies for cancers, announced that a preclinical study of innovative pretreatment regimens for cell therapy will be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, taking place April 25 - 30 in Chicago. This study indicated that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) could significantly increase the tumor-killing effects via elevating the membrane MHC-I protein levels of tumor cells without affecting TILs'proliferation. In addition, its effect on surface PD-L1 expression was not significant compared with IFN-γ. These results provide preclinical evidence for HCQ pretreatment of the adoptive cell therapy of TILs in clinical trials. Details of the poster presentation are below: Abstract Number: 5827 Abstract Title: Hydroxychloroquine increases the tumor killing efficiency via elevating the membrane MHC-I protein levels of tumor cells Session Title: Immunomodulatory Agents and Interventions Location: Poster Section 29 Poster Board Number: 3 Poster Presentation Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM CST, April 29, 2025 About Juncell Therapeutics Juncell Therapeutics is a biotech dedicated to developing high-quality, accessible TIL cell therapies for the treatment of solid tumors. Juncell Therapeutics has established its proprietary DeepTIL® cell expansion and NovaGMP® gene modification technology platforms, which are designed to address the key challenges of conventional TIL therapies, making TILs "robust, competent, affordable, and accessible." Two clinical-stage TIL therapies have demonstrated promising safety and efficacy in the treatment of ten types of heavily pretreated advanced solid tumors, including lung cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, high-grade glioma, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, cervical cancer, head and neck cancer, bile duct cancer and melanoma. 7 of these late-stage tumor patients have achieved complete response, and the longest tumor-free survival time is over 3 years. For more information, please visit: Juncell Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Shanghai Juncell Therapeutics Co., Ltd. WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM? 440k+ Newsrooms & Influencers 9k+ Digital Media Outlets 270k+ Journalists Opted In GET STARTED

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will sit before a Senate committee on Wednesday and provide the first substantive glimpse into how he may run the nation’s health department. Capitol Hill’s questioning could reveal what a Kennedy-led HHS would look like, and most critically, which version of the polarizing 71-year-old would steer the ship if confirmed. Decades of lawsuits, speeches and books have shown Kennedy to be a fierce adversary of vaccination. But he has also tried to address concerns over that history, saying he won’t “ take away anybody’s vaccines, ” and he’s “all for the polio vaccine.” Biopharmaceutical executives and insiders have voiced split opinions on what Kennedy could mean for the drug industry and the nation’s health. In recent interviews, leaders have ranged from enthusiastic support to full-blown opposition. The Senate Finance Committee will hold the first of two confirmation hearings in Washington on Wednesday starting at 10 a.m., and is expected to ask about Kennedy’s views on topics ranging from vaccines to drug pricing to abortion. The Senate Health Committee will hold a courtesy hearing on Thursday, but only the Finance Committee will vote on whether to advance Kennedy’s nomination to the full Senate. Kennedy’s nomination fight is expected to be among the closest for Trump’s cabinet picks. Some Kennedy allies fear he may not have enough support to be confirmed, the Financial Times reported Monday . ( Endpoints News is a part of the FT Specialist group, but does not share reporting or content.) Democrats are expected to be nearly unanimous in opposing Kennedy. They could use the hearings to try to “bait him into giving more left-leaning answers” on topics like drug pricing, Barrett Thornhill, a partner at Forbes Tate Partners and former congressional staffer, said on a Monday call previewing the hearing hosted by Evercore ISI. Kennedy can afford few defections from Republicans, who hold 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats. Thornhill said Sens. John Thune (R-SD), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) would be “good barometers to watch for” in the hearing. Other GOP senators are seeking public commitments from Kennedy on issues from abortion to climate change to vaccines. Vaccine policy is a small fraction of the job of running HHS, an 83,000-person agency that oversees other medical and research organizations like the FDA, NIH and CDC. Kennedy’s views on other topics, like tackling chronic disease and fighting ultra-processed foods, may find some mutual ground during Wednesday’s hearing. The committee is also likely to ask questions on the public communications freeze within the health agencies, NIH grant review delays and other effects of the transition to the new administration. What unites most biopharma executives is a belief that Kennedy will bring change. An Endpoints 100 survey from December found 69% of industry executives believe Kennedy will affect vaccine and drug development. Even more — about 75% — believe that health policy changes under Trump and Kennedy will be for the worse. But as Kennedy’s bid to run HHS has gone from a far-fetched hypothetical to reality, some industry leaders appear to be warming up to him. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the Los Angeles biotech billionaire who oversees dozens of startups, told Endpoints he’s sat down with Kennedy twice over the past couple of months and concluded there’s a “completely different story” to Kennedy than his public portrayal. Soon-Shiong, who tried developing his own Covid-19 vaccine candidate during the pandemic, said they dove into the science behind Kennedy’s vaccine doubts. Kennedy framed his worries as about specific excipients, or inactive ingredients like mercury, found in certain vaccines. Soon-Shiong said Kennedy told him that he’s not trying to block vaccines; he just wants them studied. Soon-Shiong said he supports Kennedy for health secretary. “If you just come from the science, he’s looking at the science,” he added. Other industry heavyweights have stopped well short of criticizing Kennedy. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, for instance, has met with Trump and Kennedy in Mar-a-Lago. He said he sees opportunities and risks in working with them in a recent interview with Semafor . “The new administration, they have a boldness,” Bourla said, while discussing the idea of pursuing something like an Operation Warp Speed for cancer with the new administration. “They go for it when they go, right? So the question is, how to influence the environment so that they would go for it in the right way?” It’s hard to tell how much of Kennedy’s biopharma support (or lack of opposition) is genuine versus genuflecting. There is certainly a pragmatism in not making enemies with a new administration. On the other side, former FDA head and Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb has been vocal in his opposition to Kennedy. He said he fears childhood vaccination rates may decline further, leading to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. “I’ve been very clear he shouldn’t be health secretary,” Gottlieb said earlier this month at an Endpoints event. “I have a lot of concerns about the positions he’s taken.” Bob Nelsen, co-founder and managing director of ARCH Venture Partners, has changed his tune on Kennedy. When Kennedy was running for president in 2023, Nelsen called him a “dangerous conspiracy theorist, who has contributed to many deaths with his anti-vaccine lies.” Nelsen was far more ambiguous when asked about Kennedy earlier this month at Endpoints’ JPM event. He declined to say if he supports or opposes Kennedy, but said he backs “anybody that wants to stir it up” in Washington — and that Kennedy fits that bill. “He will be confirmed and he will stir things up,” Nelsen said, also adding that he “needs to be educated on some things when it comes to immunity.” George Yancopoulos, Regeneron’s chief scientific officer, echoed a similarly vague tone when asked about Trump’s health nominees. “I welcome and I like people who want to challenge the status quo and try to improve things,” Yancopoulos said in an interview. He added that his primary concern was maintaining a strong FDA with the approval bar of randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Marc Samuels, CEO of the consultancy ADVI Health, told Endpoints he didn’t think Kennedy would pursue what he calls his “curiosities,” which would include removing FDA staff, as he has promised. “I don’t think there’s going to be hysterics,” Samuels said, noting that it’s unlikely Kennedy, for instance, will throw a wrench into user fees as he’s suggested. “Looking at the picture as a whole from 60,000 feet, user fees are useful. It means that taxpayers aren’t footing the bill for the whole process.” Regarding Trump’s push on healthcare, Samuels said: “Having a Republican Senate and a Republican House, even though margins are slim, it does help continue to focus the message.” He noted that reforms of any magnitude can be difficult to pull off. “You can’t pull on one string without pulling on like five more,” he said. Harvard professor Aaron Kesselheim, meanwhile, told Endpoints in an email he’s interested in hearing more on Kennedy’s views on key issues — from water fluoridation to hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment to polio vaccines — and why his positions on those are “all at such variance with the overwhelming burden of data.” “It’d be nice to understand what he believes the role of scientific evidence is in shaping health policy, especially around drugs,” Kesselheim said.