News
Company News: Merus appoints Mark Iwicki as President of the Supervisory Board
Merus B.V., a leader in developing best-in-class bispecific antibody therapeutics to treat cancer patients, today announced that Mark Iwicki has been appointed as President of its Supervisory Board.
Mr. Iwicki most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of biotechnology company Civitas Therapeutics until it was acquired by Acorda Therapeutics in 2014. Previously, Mr. Iwicki was the CEO of Blend Therapeutics and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals.
Mark will replace Gerard van Odijk who has been the company’s President of the Board for the last 7 years.
Company News: Merus and Selexis receive a € 2.1 million grant for single cell line manufacturing of a bispecific antibody combination to treat colorectal cancer
Merus B.V., a leader in developing best-in-class bispecific antibody therapeutics to treat cancer patients and Selexis SA a serial innovation company with proven technologies for biologics drug discovery and Research Cell Bank (RCB) development today announced the award of the EUREKA Eurostars grant “BiSECT” with a total budget of €2.1 million to develop bispecific antibody combination products for the treatment of colorectal cancer.
In the program, Merus and Selexis will combine their unique and proprietary Oligoclonics® and SUREtechnology™ platforms respectively to develop a product combining two bispecific full length IgG antibodies that simultaneously targets and potently inhibits three receptor tyrosine kinases. The lead Oligoclonics® candidate was discovered as part of a previous EUREKA program and will be produced from a single manufacturing cell line developed by Selexis.
Company News: New Peer-Reviewed Publication Provides Further Insights into Mechanism of ISA Pharmaceuticals’ SLP® Immunotherapeutics
– SLP®s modulate intratumoral macrophages required for tumor regression
ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focusing on rationally designed immunotherapeutics against cancer and persistent viral infections, today announced the publication of a new peer-reviewed paper* demonstrating a beneficial effect of Synthetic Long Peptide (SLP®s) immunotherapeutics on intratumoral macrophages in cancers induced by human papilloma virus 16 (HPV16). ISA’s proprietary SLP® immunotherapeutics are rationally designed, off-the-shelf, synthetic peptides which ISA is developing as cancer immunotherapeutics. The company’s SLP® lead compound ISA101 is in clinical development for the treatment of early-stage, advanced and recurrent cancers induced by HPV16 infections.
Macrophages, a type of white blood cell, play a critical role in immunity by recruiting other immune cells and exerting effector functions, such as phagocytosis and cell or bacterial killing. They exist in two major and opposing types: The so-called M1 macrophages inhibit cell proliferation and cause tissue damage, while M2 macrophages promote cell proliferation and tissue repair. Cancer is often characterized by M2 activity, which facilitates tumor growth via angiogenesis, metastasis formation and suppression of Th1-type immune responses, among others. As a result, M2 macrophage infiltration of tumors commonly correlates with poor prognosis.
Based on these observations, the targeting of macrophages or inhibition of macrophage infiltration is considered a promising therapeutic option in cancer therapy. However, as part of an ongoing investigation into tumor immunotherapy, the authors of the paper cited below were able to demonstrate that skewing the macrophages towards M1 antitumor activity might be the optimal strategy instead. In animal studies, this skewing can be accomplished with ISA’s Synthetic Long Peptide (SLP®) immunotherapeutics.
The team of researchers used a mouse tumor model of HPV-induced cancers, such as cervical cancer, and HPV-positive head and neck cancer. Administration of an SLP® compound, among others, resulted in an influx of cytokine-producing CD8 T cells that strongly altered the numbers and phenotype of intratumoral macrophages from M2 to M1 activity. It was also demonstrated that complete regressions of large established tumors are dependent on the tumor-infiltrating macrophages induced by this immunotherapy: when a small molecule drug inhibitor diminished the number of intratumoral macrophages after SLP® administration, the complete remissions were abrogated and survival rates deteriorated.
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* van der Sluis TC et al. (2015), Therapeutic peptide vaccine-induced CD8 T cells strongly modulate intratumoral macrophages required for tumor regression. Cancer Immunol Res. 2015 Apr 17. pii: canimm.0052.2015
Company News: Curetis Strengthens Executive Team; Appoints Dr. Achim Plum as Chief Commercial Officer
– Former Siemens Healthcare manager adds broad expertise in molecular diagnostics, sales, marketing, and business development
Curetis AG, a developer of next-level molecular diagnostic solutions, today announced Dr. Achim Plum has been appointed to the newly-created role of Chief Commercial Officer. Dr. Plum joins Curetis from a senior management position at Siemens, where he focused on the assessment and development of novel approaches to the in vitro diagnostic (IVD) market. He will oversee all commercial activities, including international sales, business development, marketing and medical affairs.
Dr. Plum will focus on the continued expansion of Curetis’ commercial organization and infrastructure with the goal of achieving aggressive revenue growth targets in Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. He will also establish a U.S.-based commercial team to support the launch of the Unyvero Solution following FDA approval.
Prior to his position at Siemens, Dr. Plum spent eight years in various commercial roles at Epigenomics, a publicly-traded molecular diagnostics company, most recently as Senior Vice President Business and Strategy. At Epigenomics, he built sales and marketing teams and distribution networks in Europe and the U.S., negotiated strategic commercial agreements with leading diagnostics industry players and led the public company’s corporate communications and compliance functions. He brings significant capital markets experience through his involvement in multiple financing transactions with U.S. and international investors.