Abemaciclib

Eli Lilly has turned to a biotechnology startup for help building its pipeline of cancer drugs, agreeing on Monday to purchase an experimental cancer drug from privately held Scorpion Therapeutics for as much as $2.5 billion.As part of the deal, Scorpion will spin out a new, independent company that will hold its other assets as well as inherit its employees. Lilly will take a minority stake in the new company, which will be owned by Scorpions current shareholders, among them Atlas Venture, Vida Ventures and Omega Funds.Current Scorpion CEO Adam Friedman will lead the new company along with other members of the startups management.The acquisition hands Lilly a medicine, dubbed STX-678, that is aimed at tumors driven to growth by mutations to a gene called PI3Ka. So-called PI3Ka mutations are among the most common drivers of cancer, affecting more than 160,000 people diagnosed each year with breast, gynecological and head and neck cancers in the U.S., according to Scorpion.A handful of medicines already available, like Novartis Piqray and AstraZenecas Truqap, as well as others in clinical development also target PI3Ka mutations.Scorpion has claimed its drug could be more selective and potent than existing PI3Ka inhibitors, which block normal, or wild-type, PI3Ka and as a result are tough to tolerate. Existing drugs also dont readily reach the brain tissue into which many solid tumors spread. Scorpion says its drug might overcome these limitations and has advanced the treatment into a Phase 1/2 trial in multiple tumor types, among them a common form of breast cancer.Scorpion has been collaborating with Pfizer to study STX-678 together with a so-called CDK4 inhibitor. Lilly sells a drug, called Verzenio, that similarly targets CDK4 alongside a related protein.The deal will expand a cancer drug division Lilly has poured considerable resources into as a complement to its lucrative metabolic disease business. Lilly acquired Loxo Oncology in 2019 and, since then, has used deals to buy into other areas of precision oncology such as radiopharmaceuticals and antibody-drug conjugates.Verzenio, which Lilly discovered and developed internally, has become the top-selling drug of its class, though much of Lillys revenue is derived from its diabetes and weight loss treatments. Lilly also has in its pipeline an internally developed PI3Ka inhibitor thats in Phase 1 testing.Lillys deal with Scorpion adds to an upward trend in private biotech M&A. The increase has coincided with a weakening market for initial public offerings, which as forced many mature startups to explore strategic options.Scorpion was co-founded in 2020 by Gary Glick, who helped the company raise nearly $300 million in venture funding before departingin 2021. Prior to Scorpion, Glick led Lycera, which inked a 2015 deal with Celgene, and IFM Therapeutics, which has spun off multiple companies that were acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb and Novartis.Glicks latest company, Odyssey Therapeutics, is developing treatments for inflammatory diseases. '

In the largest study to date of bone and soft tissue tumors, OGM detected 100% of the variants found by multiple standard techniques, including karyotyping, fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) & gene fusion assays OGM was also more sensitive, including detection of diagnostic or pathogenic variants missed by karyotype in 74% (14/19) of cases that failed or were negative by karyotyping When OGM results and next-generation sequencing (NGS) results were combined, diagnostic and pathogenic structural variants (SVs), copy number variants (CNVs), and/or single nucleotide variants (SNVs) were found in ~98% of cases, a substantially greater rate than when karyotyping, FISH and NGS are used Dec. 23, 2024 -- Bionano Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BNGO) today announced a publication in Modern Pathology by a group of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, showing that optical genome mapping (OGM) can outperform traditional techniques in analysis of bone and soft tissue tumors. Several prior publications have shown the utility of OGM compared to traditional cytogenetics in studies of hematologic malignancies, however, data on the application of OGM in solid tumors has been relatively sparse. This study provides compelling support for extending the utility of OGM in cancer beyond hematologic malignancies to solid tumors. OGM detected all variants revealed by conventional cytogenetics: OGM showed 100% concordance, identifying all pathogenic variants detected by standard of care cytogenetic methods. The specificity of OGM was assessed to be 100%, i.e. OGM correctly identified the same pathogenic SVs and CNVs detected by standard of care/routine cytogenetics (karyotyping and FISH). OGM detected pathogenic variants missed by karyotyping: In 74% of cases with normal or failed karyotype, OGM detected diagnostic or pathogenic SVs that were missed by karyotyping. Further, in 6 cases that failed to yield any karyotyping results due to culture failure, OGM detected pathogenic SVs in all of them. Variants found by OGM but missed by standard of care included the EWSR1::ETV1 fusion, which is a key molecular hallmark of clear cell sarcoma and helps to differentiate it from other soft tissue sarcomas and melanomas. OGM resolved complex cancer genomes: Study authors found that OGM data could re-characterized and better defined complex structural rearrangements including chromoanagenesis in 27% of cases and complex 3-6-way translocations in 15% of cases when compared to traditional cytogenetic methods. OGM combined with NGS found pathogenic variants in 98% of cases, a substantially greater rate than when karyotyping, FISH and NGS are used: The integrated approach of the combination of OGM and NGS resulted in the detection of pathogenic SVs and sequence variants in ~98% of cases. OGM was 100% concordant with NGS for aneuploidy detection. OGM findings have the potential to qualify subjects for targeted therapies that otherwise would not have been possible: The authors state that several of the OGM findings could result in the potential for these cases to qualify for either targeted treatments or clinical trials. For example, cases with potential to be treated by CDK4/6 inhibitors (palbociclib, ribociclib, abemaciclib), TRK inhibitors (larotrectinib, entrectinib), pan-FGFR inhibitors (erdafitinib or futibatinib) were highlighted. Erik Holmlin, president and chief executive officer of Bionano commented, “Approximately 50% of bone and soft tissue tumor samples fail to reveal actionable information for proper classification of disease, prognosis and therapeutic management because they either fail to culture or because traditional techniques in cytogenetics lack adequate sensitivity and specificity to reliably detect relevant variants. We have seen increasing evidence for OGM as a valuable alternative to cytogenetic methods in blood cancers, and we are thrilled to see researchers at Johns Hopkins publishing this compelling case for extending OGM’s utility to bone and soft tissue tumors.” The full research publication is available at: https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1016/j.modpat.2024.100684 Bionano is a provider of genome analysis solutions that can enable researchers and clinicians to reveal answers to challenging questions in biology and medicine. The Company’s mission is to transform the way the world sees the genome through optical genome mapping (OGM) solutions, diagnostic services and software. The Company offers OGM solutions for applications across basic, translational and clinical research. The Company also offers an industry-leading, platform-agnostic genome analysis software solution, and nucleic acid extraction and purification solutions using proprietary isotachophoresis (ITP) technology. Through its Lineagen, Inc. d/b/a Bionano Laboratories business, the Company also offers OGM-based diagnostic testing services. The content above comes from the network. if any infringement, please contact us to modify.