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Archive for the ‘Pharmaceutical Discovery’ Category

LIVE 13th Annual BioPharma and Healthcare Summit, Thursday, May 9, 2019, Marriott Hotel, Cambridge, MA

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

http://www.usaindiachamber.org

8:40 AM – 9:10 AM Registration and Networking
9:10 AM – 9:20 AM Welcome addressKarun Rishi, President, USAIC

Opening comments: Dr Andrew Plump, President R&D and Director, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

9:20 AM – 9:40 AM Fireside Chat

  • Mark Abdoo, Acting Deputy Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  • Dr Eswara Reddy, Drug Controller General of India, Central Drug Control Organization

Moderator: Sanat Chattopadhyay, President, Merck Manufacturing Division; Merck & Co.

9:40 AM – 10:00 AM Presentation on CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell Therapies
Dr. Carl June, Director of Translational Research, Abramson Cancer Center University of Pennsylvania Moderator: Dr. Raju Kucherlapati, Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
10:00 AM – 10:50 AM Panel Discussion: Oncology – The Emperor of BioPharma Development

Panelists:

Moderator: Dr. Christiana Bardon, Managing Director, MPM Capital

10:50 AM – 11:20 AM Networking Break
11:20 AM – 12:10 PM Panel Discussion: Future of Clinical Trials and Drug Development

Panelists:

Moderator: Dr. William Chin, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School

12:10 PM – 1:00 PM Panel Discussion: Manufacturing in the Future

Panelists:

  • Hari Bhartia, Founder and Co-Chairman, Jubilant Bhartia Group
  • Mark Abdoo, Acting Deputy Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  • Dr. Paul McKenzie, Executive Vice President, Pharma Operations & Technology, Biogen
  • Sanat Chattopadhyay, President, Merck Manufacturing Division; Merck & Co.
  • Vinay Ranade, Chief Executive Officer, Reliance Life Sciences

Moderator: Professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, Boston University Questrom School of Business

1:00 PM – 1:50 PM Lunch
1:50 PM – 1:55 PM Video message from Suresh Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister of Commerce & Industry, Gov. of India
1:55 PM – 2:45 PM Panel Discussion: One in a million – Emerging trends in Rare Diseases

Panelists:

Moderator: Dr. Samarth Kulkarni, Chief Executive Officer, CRISPR Therapeutics

2:45 PM – 3:20 PM Networking & Tea Break
3:20 PM – 3:50 PM Fireside Chat: Value and Access – The ongoing debate

Moderator: Dr Andrew Plump, President R&D, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

3:50 PM – 4:10 PM India update on Clinical Trial Regulations

  • Arun Singhal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, India
  • Dr Eswara Reddy, Drug Controller General of India, Central Drug Control Organization
4:10 PM – 5:00 PM Panel Discussion: Research and Development Strategies and Trends

Panelists:

Moderator: Dr. Martin Mackay, Co-Founde, Rallybio

5:00 PM – 5:05 PM Closing Remarks
5:05 PM – 6:15 PM Cocktails & Networking Reception

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN & Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group

will cover the event in Real Time

REAL TIME COVERAGE USING SOCIAL MEDIA

 

LIVE Images taken by @AVIVA1950

 

 

 

9:10 AM – 9:20 AM

Welcome addressKarun Rishi, President, USAIC

Opening comments: Dr Andrew Plump, President R&D and Director, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

  • tomorrow announcement @Shire
  • India 1.3Billion in India, each person is a potential patient in the largest democracy in the World
  • China – transformation takes place every day
  • The Patient and the Pricing of Drugs the biggest issue missing the ball dialoguing on Panel today

9:20 AM – 9:40 AM

Fireside Chat

  • Mark Abdoo, Acting Deputy Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Dr Eswara Reddy, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Central Drug Control Organization

Moderator: Sanat Chattopadhyay, President, Merck Manufacturing Division; Merck & Co.

9:40 AM – 10:00 AM Presentation on CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell Therapies
Dr. Carl June, Director of Translational Research, Abramson Cancer Center University of Pennsylvania Moderator: Dr. Raju Kucherlapati, Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School

  • Video on child with recurrent twice of leukhimia
  • T-cell HIV Virus infect

 

10:00 AM – 10:50 AM

Panel Discussion: Oncology – The Emperor of BioPharma Development

Panelists:

  1. solid vs blood tumors
  2. T-Cells amplification microenvironment and biology
  3. PD-1 in combination therapies thousand Trials
  4. Biomarker allows to check response in conjunction with genomics data brings insights
  5. Tumors World, Biomarkers in Immuno oncology respond to PD-1 no response to other drug
  6. stratify patients
  1. Protein experimental data compound design from simulations of VIRTUAL compounds,
  2. how to incentivise to take on new innovations
  1. more that one single administration by injection
  2. response rates different even in one patient let alone among patients
  3. detection gene
  4. CAR-T glioblastoma
  5. pancreatic cancer good responses in combination therapies
  6. immunr repertoire biology so complex that biomarkers are limited

Moderator: Dr. Christiana Bardon, Managing Director, MPM Capital

  • 30% patinets with complete cure

10:50 AM – 11:20 AM Networking Break11:20 AM – 12:10 PM

Panel Discussion: Future of Clinical Trials and Drug Development

Panelists:

  1. endpoints need to be redefined it effect price of drug development
  2. in Oncology – Basket and Umbrellas Trial – two stufies approval for melanoma, biomarker
  3. Is response rate is 30% va 50% and Phase 3 is negative Kertuda when worked at Merck dose ranging last phase when response dropped from 60% to 30% in the case of Study C3
  4. 30% of the cost of the study – 30% was translational
  5. CRO model appropriate oversite vs douplication of tasks
  • Dr. Bruce Chabner, Director of Clinical Research, Mass General Hospital Cancer Center
  1. Old paradigm Phase 1,2,3 – off the board now, New drugs do not need the old paradigm
  2. Phase i1 changed if genomics is involved multiple cohorts at same time
  3. FDA play amazing role
  4. patient selection is key
  5. mutations in rare disease vs mutations in cancer
  6. immunotherapy and endogenic drugs with chemo in RENAL cancer
  7. check-points – lung cancer understood money spent to find responders
  8. HOW to select which cheno therapy — no improvement today vs past
  9. 40 drugs approved by accelerated approval one came back on the market
  10. Financial burden of being in a clinical trial
  11. Foundation gives money to Institutions to reimburse patients for flights, meals, acommodation, Pharma are reluctant to participants due to potential accusation of bias id Pharma pays Patients that participate in Clinical Trials
  1. FDA recognizes approval process – systems involved AFTER approval for reimbursement and monitoring after market
  2. regulatory by countires are different
  3. which factors are sacrifiable in the long tern in clinical trial design
  1. Safety – benefit risk is what physicians work with every day
  2. Drugs paradign of small molecules does not hold is you have a drug that deliver entire organelle – how you dose for half life how you prive the rate of replication in the body
  3. Surrogate markers
  4. Taking a drug off the market ->>  conditional approvals [approval can be taken back or require additional studies] not a favorable view of Pharma in the present to support Conditional approval vs accelerated approval

 

  1. speed
  2. differentiation from competition
  3. drug development in crisis is CVD not cancer, US and the rest of the world – lowest investment in drugs is CVD
  4. Studies designed by Physicians using SAME design
  5. need to create experts to use ML in the course of clinical trial design
  6. regulators as Partners not as Barriers
  7. Proof of efficacy is a burden on the developers of the drug not on the Regulatory
  8. Increase use of advertising to recruit
  9. 70% OF PATIENTS WILLING TO PARTICIPATE  lives to far from site of trials
  10. Telecommunication between administrators of study ans clinical Trials participants
  11. Back when I was at Pfizer, designing study – patients burden relieved more willingness to participate
  12. Preferrs to run studies in house vs use CRO they are not effective in monitoring like study run in house

Moderator: Dr. William Chin, Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School

  • Probability of success to clinic has not changed
  • challenge is design and execution in clinical trials
  • changes in drug modalities: RNA, DNA,
  • which combination to use
  • how to find the many patients needed
  • Basket and Umbrellas Trial

12:10 PM – 1:00 PM

Panel Discussion: Manufacturing in the Future

Panelists:

  • Hari Bhartia, Founder and Co-Chairman, Jubilant Bhartia Group
  1. supply change
  2. blockchain
  3. quality by design
  4. CPK
  5. productivity will go up variability will decrease
  6. manufacturng must happen in India
  7. Genetics price selection
  8. Secure system, data quality the data logic and the analytics
  9. infrastructure in manufacturing is not completed yet
  10. Training by augmented reality Turnover high in India
  11. cyber security – digitization and central control
  12. demonstration data offense
  • Mark Abdoo, Acting Deputy Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  1. next 10 years India and China will improve regulatory activities and match better the US requirements
  2. review foreign hosts
  3. skills and location of hosts:
  4. India: Standards and unannounced inspections and
  5. China: same
  6. Blockchain is experienced as experimentation at FDA across each all parts of the Agency
  • Dr. Paul McKenzie, Executive Vice President, Pharma Operations & Technology, Biogen
  1. raw material to patients: Pharma very slow than other industries Reliable needs be very high, relationships
  2. Hurrican in PortoRIco affected supply chain
  3. Reality, every one HAVE to be in China
  4. Platforming for each modality for Scaling out vs Scaling up
  5. diversify vs modality x
  6. build capacity and capabilities customization of ultra filtration different in two plants lowers standardizations
  7. Training on Demand, Virtually, documnetation needs to change to electronic
  8. Continueous manufacturing Academic contribution
  • Vinay Ranade, Chief Executive Officer, Reliance Life Sciences
  1. Pharma was slow in India the manufacturing
  2. infantile diarreha vaccine 70,000 in 4 years needs that drug,
  3. massive intellectual capital in India
  4. How to implement and make best use of data to improve processes
  5. cyber security was not experiences
  1. Phase 1 scaling out vs up – it is different in vaccine field
  2. ML, Block chain, supply chain and manufacturing will be adapted in supply chain
  3. Apply analytics and relationships in manufacturing
  4. obsolescence and upgrades
  5. capture data electronically
  6. cyber security can be a hazard hard to mitigate when all systems are down
  7. significant challenges in manufacturing and data security

Moderator: Professor N. Venkat Venkatraman, Boston University Questrom School of Business

  • How can Pharma become leaner
  • heterogenuious environment for production
  • cyber security

1:00 PM – 1:50 PMLunch1:50 PM – 1:55 PM Video message from Suresh Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister of Commerce & Industry, Gov. of India1:55 PM – 2:45 PM

Panel Discussion: One in a million – Emerging trends in Rare Diseases

Panelists:

  1. worked with Academic community on how to treat rare disease in the future
  1. Show clinical benefit and impact multiplemyeloma
  2. patients becoming activists
  3. access
  4. foundation by patients
  5. Patient to get cloud
  • Dr. Dhaval Patel, Executive Vice President  and Chief Scientific Officer, UCB
  1. if a modality will cure a disease justify innovation Model for payment: Mortgage Model
  2. Access INDEX pricing – US will benchmark the price in other parts of the world
  3. Gene therapy is not only got monognenic diseases but for
  4. decrease work involved in development of drugs
  • Dr. James Wilson, Director – Gene Therapy Program, University of Pennsylvania
  1. tension between physicians and development of the perfect drug.
  2. AV
  3. Protein replacement therapy repeated infusion gene therapy infrastructure develop in China for China, Develop in India for India vs develop in US for India or China
  4. Cost of manufacturing to decrease
  • Dr. Timothy Yu, Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
  1. Scalability beyond the one case: the mechanism for the drug has generability for other aptients iwth same mutation the method has no limit
  2. Molecular type of mutation Spice Switching strategy, just-in-time manufacturing

Moderator: Dr. Samarth Kulkarni, Chief Executive Officer, CRISPR Therapeutics

  1. Rare diseases, potential for cure
  2. Academia, Hospitals, biotech
  3. commercial model of the disease

2:45 PM – 3:20 PMNetworking & Tea Break3:20 PM – 3:50 PM

Fireside Chat: Value and Access – The ongoing debate

  1. since 2003 testify in the House, against Canadian  David Brenner was asked about importation from Canada of breast cancer tamoxiphen at a lower price than in the US.
  2. From importation crisis to Obama Care – stable system Medicare Part D – drug coverage for Olderly
  3. After Obama – Price is part of doing business REBATES $100Billion the valur of REBATES
  4. Co-Insurance
  1. right for innovation will be preserved
  2. price increase
  3. give and take
  4. Co-pay – We need lower co-pay
  5. with current administration, sink finding the Well instead of Well funding the sick
  6. CHange is coming, co-pay will change
  1. Genzyme days vs 2019
  2. changes how drugs are priced?
  3. Flaws of the system:Gevernment induce prices that will change
  4. $800,000 drug is now $80 [ala Regeneron] – R&D was $2Billion
  5. CO-pay for hospital stay is lower than co-pay on drugs – 10% twice a year

Moderator: Dr Andrew Plump, President R&D, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

3:50 PM – 4:10 PM

India update on Clinical Trial Regulations

  • Arun Singhal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, India
  1. Each patient deserve access to healthcare in India
  2. experimenting
  • Dr Eswara Reddy, Drug Controller General of India, Central Drug Control Organization
  1. Time line for Application approval for drugs, if approved in another country 60 days
  2. Gov’t hospitals can import New drugs which have not been permitted in India

4:10 PM – 5:00 PM

Panel Discussion: Research and Development Strategies and Trends

Panelists:

  1. Neuroscience – Pharma understand biomarkers and now genetics
  2. Vaccines – across species in the animal WORLD
  1. Attempt not to tweak the PIPELINE: CVD, NEUROSCIENCE AND CANCER
  2. 485 Teams doing R&D convluence of interests to develop cure
  3. Modularity – BioMolecule — multimodality biophysical biochemical protein degradation – rewire disease cells with biomolecules combing propertitie of permiability of small molecules
  4. PHARMACOLOGICAL PREVENTION – biotech is inspiring only Pharma can solve
  1. immunooncology – mutation signature – marker protein signature — that group of diseases respond to
  2. colon cancer and multiple myeloma — understanding of the biology was deep

Moderator: Dr. Martin Mackay, Co-Founder, Rallybio

5:00 PM – 5:05 PM Closing Remarks

5:05 PM – 6:15 PM Cocktails & Networking Reception

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Use of 3D Bioprinting for Development of Toxicity Prediction Models

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

SOT FDA Colloquium on 3D Bioprinted Tissue Models: Tuesday, April 9, 2019

The Society of Toxicology (SOT) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will hold a workshop on “Alternative Methods for Predictive Safety Testing: 3D Bioprinted Tissue Models” on Tuesday, April 9, at the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in College Park, Maryland. This workshop is the latest in the series, “SOT FDA Colloquia on Emerging Toxicological Science: Challenges in Food and Ingredient Safety.”

Human 3D bioprinted tissues represent a valuable in vitro approach for chemical, personal care product, cosmetic, and preclinical toxicity/safety testing. Bioprinting of skin, liver, and kidney is already appearing in toxicity testing applications for chemical exposures and disease modeling. The use of 3D bioprinted tissues and organs may provide future alternative approaches for testing that may more closely resemble and simulate intact human tissues to more accurately predict human responses to chemical and drug exposures.

A synopsis of the schedule and related works from the speakers is given below:

 

8:40 AM–9:20 AM Overview and Challenges of Bioprinting
Sharon Presnell, Amnion Foundation, Winston-Salem, NC
9:20 AM–10:00 AM Putting 3D Bioprinting to the Use of Tissue Model Fabrication
Y. Shrike Zhang, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Boston, MA
10:00 AM–10:20 AM Break
10:20 AM–11:00 AM Uses of Bioprinted Liver Tissue in Drug Development
Jean-Louis Klein, GlaxoSmithKline, Collegeville, PA
11:00 AM–11:40 AM Biofabrication of 3D Tissue Models for Disease Modeling and Chemical Screening
Marc Ferrer, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH, Rockville, MD

Sharon Presnell, Ph.D. President, Amnion Foundation

Dr. Sharon Presnell was most recently the Chief Scientific Officer at Organovo, Inc., and the President of their wholly-owned subsidiary, Samsara Sciences. She received a Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Pathology from the Medical College of Virginia and completed her undergraduate degree in biology at NC State. In addition to her most recent roles, Presnell has served as the director of cell biology R&D at Becton Dickinson’s corporate research center in RTP, and as the SVP of R&D at Tengion. Her roles have always involved the commercial and clinical translation of basic research and early development in the cell biology space. She serves on the board of the Coulter Foundation at the University of Virginia and is a member of the College of Life Sciences Foundation Board at NC State. In January 2019, Dr. Presnell will begin a new role as President of the Amnion Foundation, a non-profit organization in Winston-Salem.

A few of her relevant publications:

Bioprinted liver provides early insight into the role of Kupffer cells in TGF-β1 and methotrexate-induced fibrogenesis

Integrating Kupffer cells into a 3D bioprinted model of human liver recapitulates fibrotic responses of certain toxicants in a time and context dependent manner.  This work establishes that the presence of Kupffer cells or macrophages are important mediators in fibrotic responses to certain hepatotoxins and both should be incorporated into bioprinted human liver models for toxicology testing.

Bioprinted 3D Primary Liver Tissues Allow Assessment of Organ-Level Response to Clinical Drug Induced Toxicity In Vitro

Abstract: Modeling clinically relevant tissue responses using cell models poses a significant challenge for drug development, in particular for drug induced liver injury (DILI). This is mainly because existing liver models lack longevity and tissue-level complexity which limits their utility in predictive toxicology. In this study, we established and characterized novel bioprinted human liver tissue mimetics comprised of patient-derived hepatocytes and non-parenchymal cells in a defined architecture. Scaffold-free assembly of different cell types in an in vivo-relevant architecture allowed for histologic analysis that revealed distinct intercellular hepatocyte junctions, CD31+ endothelial networks, and desmin positive, smooth muscle actin negative quiescent stellates. Unlike what was seen in 2D hepatocyte cultures, the tissues maintained levels of ATP, Albumin as well as expression and drug-induced enzyme activity of Cytochrome P450s over 4 weeks in culture. To assess the ability of the 3D liver cultures to model tissue-level DILI, dose responses of Trovafloxacin, a drug whose hepatotoxic potential could not be assessed by standard pre-clinical models, were compared to the structurally related non-toxic drug Levofloxacin. Trovafloxacin induced significant, dose-dependent toxicity at clinically relevant doses (≤ 4uM). Interestingly, Trovafloxacin toxicity was observed without lipopolysaccharide stimulation and in the absence of resident macrophages in contrast to earlier reports. Together, these results demonstrate that 3D bioprinted liver tissues can both effectively model DILI and distinguish between highly related compounds with differential profile. Thus, the combination of patient-derived primary cells with bioprinting technology here for the first time demonstrates superior performance in terms of mimicking human drug response in a known target organ at the tissue level.

A great interview with Dr. Presnell and the 3D Models 2017 Symposium is located here:

Please click here for Web based and PDF version of interview

Some highlights of the interview include

  • Exciting advances in field showing we can model complex tissue-level disease-state phenotypes that develop in response to chronic long term injury or exposure
  • Sees the field developing a means to converge both the biology and physiology of tissues, namely modeling the connectivity between tissues such as fluid flow
  • Future work will need to be dedicated to develop comprehensive analytics for 3D tissue analysis. As she states “we are very conditioned to get information in a simple way from biochemical readouts in two dimension, monocellular systems”  however how we address the complexity of various cellular responses in a 3D multicellular environment will be pertinent.
  • Additional challenges include the scalability of such systems and making such system accessible in a larger way
  1. Shrike Zhang, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology

Dr. Zhang currently holds an Assistant Professor position at Harvard Medical School and is an Associate Bioengineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His research interests include organ-on-a-chip, 3D bioprinting, biomaterials, regenerative engineering, biomedical imaging, biosensing, nanomedicine, and developmental biology. His scientific contributions have been recognized by >40 international, national, and regional awards. He has been invited to deliver >70 lectures worldwide, and has served as reviewer for >400 manuscripts for >30 journals. He is serving as Editor-in-Chief for Microphysiological Systems, and Associate Editor for Bio-Design and Manufacturing. He is also on Editorial Board of BioprintingHeliyonBMC Materials, and Essays in Biochemistry, and on Advisory Panel of Nanotechnology.

Some relevant references from Dr. Zhang

Multi-tissue interactions in an integrated three-tissue organ-on-a-chip platform.

Skardal A, Murphy SV, Devarasetty M, Mead I, Kang HW, Seol YJ, Shrike Zhang Y, Shin SR, Zhao L, Aleman J, Hall AR, Shupe TD, Kleensang A, Dokmeci MR, Jin Lee S, Jackson JD, Yoo JJ, Hartung T, Khademhosseini A, Soker S, Bishop CE, Atala A.

Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 18;7(1):8837. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-08879-x.

 

Reconstruction of Large-scale Defects with a Novel Hybrid Scaffold Made from Poly(L-lactic acid)/Nanohydroxyapatite/Alendronate-loaded Chitosan Microsphere: in vitro and in vivo Studies.

Wu H, Lei P, Liu G, Shrike Zhang Y, Yang J, Zhang L, Xie J, Niu W, Liu H, Ruan J, Hu Y, Zhang C.

Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 23;7(1):359. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-00506-z.

 

 

A liver-on-a-chip platform with bioprinted hepatic spheroids.

Bhise NS, Manoharan V, Massa S, Tamayol A, Ghaderi M, Miscuglio M, Lang Q, Shrike Zhang Y, Shin SR, Calzone G, Annabi N, Shupe TD, Bishop CE, Atala A, Dokmeci MR, Khademhosseini A.

Biofabrication. 2016 Jan 12;8(1):014101. doi: 10.1088/1758-5090/8/1/014101.

 

Marc Ferrer, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH

Marc Ferrer is a team leader in the NCATS Chemical Genomics Center, which was part of the National Human Genome Research Institute when Ferrer began working there in 2010. He has extensive experience in drug discovery, both in the pharmaceutical industry and academic research. Before joining NIH, he was director of assay development and screening at Merck Research Laboratories. For 10 years at Merck, Ferrer led the development of assays for high-throughput screening of small molecules and small interfering RNA (siRNA) to support programs for lead and target identification across all disease areas.

At NCATS, Ferrer leads the implementation of probe development programs, discovery of drug combinations and development of innovative assay paradigms for more effective drug discovery. He advises collaborators on strategies for discovering small molecule therapeutics, including assays for screening and lead identification and optimization. Ferrer has experience implementing high-throughput screens for a broad range of disease areas with a wide array of assay technologies. He has led and managed highly productive teams by setting clear research strategies and goals and by establishing effective collaborations between scientists from diverse disciplines within industry, academia and technology providers.

Ferrer has a Ph.D. in biological chemistry from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard University’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. He received a B.Sc. degree in organic chemistry from the University of Barcelona in Spain.

 

Some relevant references for Dr. Ferrer

Fully 3D Bioprinted Skin Equivalent Constructs with Validated Morphology and Barrier Function.

Derr K, Zou J, Luo K, Song MJ, Sittampalam GS, Zhou C, Michael S, Ferrer M, Derr P.

Tissue Eng Part C Methods. 2019 Apr 22. doi: 10.1089/ten.TEC.2018.0318. [Epub ahead of print]

 

Determination of the Elasticity Modulus of 3D-Printed Octet-Truss Structures for Use in Porous Prosthesis Implants.

Bagheri A, Buj-Corral I, Ferrer M, Pastor MM, Roure F.

Materials (Basel). 2018 Nov 29;11(12). pii: E2420. doi: 10.3390/ma11122420.

 

Mutation Profiles in Glioblastoma 3D Oncospheres Modulate Drug Efficacy.

Wilson KM, Mathews-Griner LA, Williamson T, Guha R, Chen L, Shinn P, McKnight C, Michael S, Klumpp-Thomas C, Binder ZA, Ferrer M, Gallia GL, Thomas CJ, Riggins GJ.

SLAS Technol. 2019 Feb;24(1):28-40. doi: 10.1177/2472630318803749. Epub 2018 Oct 5.

 

A high-throughput imaging and nuclear segmentation analysis protocol for cleared 3D culture models.

Boutin ME, Voss TC, Titus SA, Cruz-Gutierrez K, Michael S, Ferrer M.

Sci Rep. 2018 Jul 24;8(1):11135. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-29169-0.

A High-Throughput Screening Model of the Tumor Microenvironment for Ovarian Cancer Cell Growth.

Lal-Nag M, McGee L, Guha R, Lengyel E, Kenny HA, Ferrer M.

SLAS Discov. 2017 Jun;22(5):494-506. doi: 10.1177/2472555216687082. Epub 2017 Jan 31.

 

Exploring Drug Dosing Regimens In Vitro Using Real-Time 3D Spheroid Tumor Growth Assays.

Lal-Nag M, McGee L, Titus SA, Brimacombe K, Michael S, Sittampalam G, Ferrer M.

SLAS Discov. 2017 Jun;22(5):537-546. doi: 10.1177/2472555217698818. Epub 2017 Mar 15.

 

RNAi High-Throughput Screening of Single- and Multi-Cell-Type Tumor Spheroids: A Comprehensive Analysis in Two and Three Dimensions.

Fu J, Fernandez D, Ferrer M, Titus SA, Buehler E, Lal-Nag MA.

SLAS Discov. 2017 Jun;22(5):525-536. doi: 10.1177/2472555217696796. Epub 2017 Mar 9.

 

Other Articles on 3D Bioprinting on this Open Access Journal include:

Global Technology Conferences on 3D BioPrinting 2015 – 2016

3D Medical BioPrinting Technology Reporting by Irina Robu, PhD – a forthcoming Article in “Medical 3D BioPrinting – The Revolution in Medicine, Technologies for Patient-centered Medicine: From R&D in Biologics to New Medical Devices”

Bio-Inks and 3D BioPrinting

New Scaffold-Free 3D Bioprinting Method Available to Researchers

Gene Editing for Gene Therapies with 3D BioPrinting

 

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Celgene Triumphs in Legal Battle over Revlimid Patent: Curation of Patents, Litigations, and Impact on Drug Pricing

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

From Celgene

REVLIMID® (lenalidomide) in combination with dexamethasone is indicated for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma (MM). as maintenance therapy in patients with MM following autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto-HSCT). and indicated for the treatment of patients with transfusion-dependent anemia due to low- or intermediate-1–risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) associated with a deletion 5q cytogenetic abnormality with or without additional cytogenetic abnormalities.

REVLIMID is also indicated for the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) whose disease has relapsed or progressed after two prior therapies, one of which included bortezomib.

REVLIMID® sales for the fourth quarter 2018 increased 16 percent to $2,549 million. Fourth quarter U.S. sales of $1,729 million and international sales of $820 million increased 17 percent and 15 percent, respectively. REVLIMID® sales growth was driven by increases in treatment duration and market share. Full year REVLIMID® sales were $9,685 million, an increase of 18 percent year-over-year. (from Celgene press release)

However, Celgene’s Revlimid basically has no competition in the multiple myeloma market and there are no generics of Revlimid, even though Revlimid is a conger of thalidomide, the 1950 era drug developed for depression and resulted in the infamous thalidomide baby cases.

The problem is highlighted in two reports:

As seen in Fortune: Celgene Boosted Price of Top Cancer Drug on Day of Mega Deal

By BLOOMBERG

January 4, 2019

On the same day Celgene Corp. was announcing that it would be acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in the biggest pharma deal ever, the company was also raising the price of its blockbuster cancer drug. The Summit, New Jersey-based biotechnology company, which has routinely increased the prices of its top-selling drugs, boosted the price of a 10-milligram dose of Revlimid by 3.5 percent to $719.82 effective Jan. 3, according to price data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence and First Databank. Cancer patients need many doses of Revlimid a year, and the overall cost can approach $200,000. The same dose cost $247.28 at the end of 2007.

As reported on NPR by Alison Kodjak: Celgene’s Patent Fortress Protects Revlimid, Thalidomide: How A DrugMaker Gamed the Patent System to Keep Generic Competition Away

When Celgene Corp. first started marketing the drug Revlimid to treat multiple myeloma in 2006, the price was $6,195 for 21 capsules, a month’s supply.By the time David Mitchell started taking Revlimid in November 2010, Celgene had bumped the price up to about $8,000 a month. When he took his last month’s worth of pills in April 2016, the sticker price had reached $10,691. By last March, the list price had reached $16,691. Revlimid appears to have caught the attention of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who used it as an example Wednesday — without naming it outright — of how some drug’s prices rise with impunity. He said the copay for the average senior taking the drug rose from $115 to about $690 per month in the last year. Celgene can keep raising the price of Revlimid because the drug has no competition. It’s been around for more than a decade and its original patent expires next year. But today it looks like another four years could pass with no generic competitor to Revlimid.

 

Therefore, when the European company Alvogen tired to produce a generic version of this drug and took Celgene to court, Celgene quickly shored up its patent fight as outlined below.

As reported in Biopharmadive.com:

 

Celgene dodges Alvogen bid to overturn Revlimid patent

Here is Celgene’s patent on Revlimid (thalidomide).

Some notes:

  • notice the multiple congeners, chemical derivatives
  • notice the multiple drug combination claims especially with using other antibodies with thalidomide (second active ingredient)
  • note multiple dosage forms

Methods for treatment of multiple myeloma using 3-(4-amino-1-oxo-1,3-dihydro-isoindol-2-yl)-piperidine-2,6-dione

Abstract
Methods of treating, preventing and/or managing cancer as well as and diseases and disorders associated with, or characterized by, undesired angiogenesis are disclosed. Specific methods encompass the administration of an immunomodulatory compound alone or in combination with a second active ingredient. The invention further relates to methods of reducing or avoiding adverse side effects associated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, biological therapy or immunotherapy which comprise the administration of an immunomodulatory compound. Pharmaceutical compositions, single unit dosage forms, and kits suitable for use in methods of the invention are also disclosed.

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Classifications
A61K31/454 Non condensed piperidines, e.g. piperocaine containing further heterocyclic ring systems containing a five-membered ring with nitrogen as a ring hetero atom, e.g. pimozide, domperidone
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US7968569B2

United States

Inventor
Jerome B. Zeldis
Current Assignee
Celgene Corp

Worldwide applications

Application US10/438,213 events
2002-05-17
Priority to US38084202P
2011-06-28
Application granted
Application status is Active
Adjusted expiration
Show all events

Description

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60/380,842, filed May 17, 2002, and No. 60/424,600, filed Nov. 6, 2002, the entireties of which are incorporated herein by reference.

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to methods of treating, preventing and/or managing specific cancers, and other diseases including, but not limited to, those associated with, or characterized by, undesired angiogenesis, by the administration of one or more immunomodulatory compounds alone or in combination with other therapeutics. In particular, the invention encompasses the use of specific combinations, or “cocktails,” of drugs and other therapy, e.g., radiation to treat these specific cancers, including those refractory to conventional therapy. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions and dosing regimens.

2. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

2.1 Pathobiology of Cancer and Other Diseases

Cancer is characterized primarily by an increase in the number of abnormal cells derived from a given normal tissue, invasion of adjacent tissues by these abnormal cells, or lymphatic or blood-borne spread of malignant cells to regional lymph nodes and to distant sites (metastasis). Clinical data and molecular biologic studies indicate that cancer is a multistep process that begins with minor preneoplastic changes, which may under certain conditions progress to neoplasia. The neoplastic lesion may evolve clonally and develop an increasing capacity for invasion, growth, metastasis, and heterogeneity, especially under conditions in which the neoplastic cells escape the host’s immune surveillance. Roitt, I., Brostoff, J and Kale, D., Immunology, 17.1-17.12 (3rd ed., Mosby, St. Louis, Mo., 1993).

There is an enormous variety of cancers which are described in detail in the medical literature. Examples includes cancer of the lung, colon, rectum, prostate, breast, brain, and intestine. The incidence of cancer continues to climb as the general population ages, as new cancers develop, and as susceptible populations (e.g., people infected with AIDS or excessively exposed to sunlight) grow. A tremendous demand therefore exists for new methods and compositions that can be used to treat patients with cancer.

Many types of cancers are associated with new blood vessel formation, a process known as angiogenesis. Several of the mechanisms involved in tumor-induced angiogenesis have been elucidated. The most direct of these mechanisms is the secretion by the tumor cells of cytokines with angiogenic properties. Examples of these cytokines include acidic and basic fibroblastic growth factor (a,b-FGF), angiogenin, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and TNF-α. Alternatively, tumor cells can release angiogenic peptides through the production of proteases and the subsequent breakdown of the extracellular matrix where some cytokines are stored (e.g., b-FGF). Angiogenesis can also be induced indirectly through the recruitment of inflammatory cells (particularly macrophages) and their subsequent release of angiogenic cytokines (e.g., TNF-α, bFGF).

A variety of other diseases and disorders are also associated with, or characterized by, undesired angiogenesis. For example, enhanced or unregulated angiogenesis has been implicated in a number of diseases and medical conditions including, but not limited to, ocular neovascular diseases, choroidal neovascular diseases, retina neovascular diseases, rubeosis (neovascularization of the angle), viral diseases, genetic diseases, inflammatory diseases, allergic diseases, and autoimmune diseases. Examples of such diseases and conditions include, but are not limited to: diabetic retinopathy; retinopathy of prematurity; corneal graft rejection; neovascular glaucoma; retrolental fibroplasia; and proliferative vitreoretinopathy.

Accordingly, compounds that can control angiogenesis or inhibit the production of certain cytokines, including TNF-α, may be useful in the treatment and prevention of various diseases and conditions.

2.2 Methods of Treating Cancer

Current cancer therapy may involve surgery, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and/or radiation treatment to eradicate neoplastic cells in a patient (see, for example, Stockdale, 1998, Medicine, vol. 3, Rubenstein and Federman, eds., Chapter 12, Section IV). Recently, cancer therapy could also involve biological therapy or immunotherapy. All of these approaches pose significant drawbacks for the patient. Surgery, for example, may be contraindicated due to the health of a patient or may be unacceptable to the patient. Additionally, surgery may not completely remove neoplastic tissue. Radiation therapy is only effective when the neoplastic tissue exhibits a higher sensitivity to radiation than normal tissue. Radiation therapy can also often elicit serious side effects. Hormonal therapy is rarely given as a single agent. Although hormonal therapy can be effective, it is often used to prevent or delay recurrence of cancer after other treatments have removed the majority of cancer cells. Biological therapies and immunotherapies are limited in number and may produce side effects such as rashes or swellings, flu-like symptoms, including fever, chills and fatigue, digestive tract problems or allergic reactions.

With respect to chemotherapy, there are a variety of chemotherapeutic agents available for treatment of cancer. A majority of cancer chemotherapeutics act by inhibiting DNA synthesis, either directly, or indirectly by inhibiting the biosynthesis of deoxyribonucleotide triphosphate precursors, to prevent DNA replication and concomitant cell division. Gilman et al., Goodman and Gilman’s: The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, Tenth Ed. (McGraw Hill, New York).

Despite availability of a variety of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapy has many drawbacks. Stockdale, Medicine, vol. 3, Rubenstein and Federman, eds., ch. 12, sect. 10, 1998. Almost all chemotherapeutic agents are toxic, and chemotherapy causes significant, and often dangerous side effects including severe nausea, bone marrow depression, and immunosuppression. Additionally, even with administration of combinations of chemotherapeutic agents, many tumor cells are resistant or develop resistance to the chemotherapeutic agents. In fact, those cells resistant to the particular chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment protocol often prove to be resistant to other drugs, even if those agents act by different mechanism from those of the drugs used in the specific treatment. This phenomenon is referred to as pleiotropic drug or multidrug resistance. Because of the drug resistance, many cancers prove refractory to standard chemotherapeutic treatment protocols.

Other diseases or conditions associated with, or characterized by, undesired angiogenesis are also difficult to treat. However, some compounds such as protamine, hepain and steroids have been proposed to be useful in the treatment of certain specific diseases. Taylor et al., Nature 297:307 (1982); Folkman et al., Science 221:719 (1983); and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,001,116 and 4,994,443. Thalidomide and certain derivatives of it have also been proposed for the treatment of such diseases and conditions. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,593,990, 5,629,327, 5,712,291, 6,071,948 and 6,114,355 to D’Amato.

Still, there is a significant need for safe and effective methods of treating, preventing and managing cancer and other diseases and conditions, particularly for diseases that are refractory to standard treatments, such as surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy, while reducing or avoiding the toxicities and/or side effects associated with the conventional therapies.

2.3 IMIDS™

A number of studies have been conducted with the aim of providing compounds that can safely and effectively be used to treat diseases associated with abnormal production of TNF-α See, e.g., Marriott, J. B., et al., Expert Opin. Biol. Ther. 1(4):1-8 (2001); G. W. Muller, et al., Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 39(17): 3238-3240 (1996); and G. W. Muller, et al, Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters 8: 2669-2674 (1998). Some studies have focused on a group of compounds selected for their capacity to potently inhibit TNF-α production by LPS stimulated PBMC. L. G. Corral, et al., Ann. Rheum. Dis. 58:(Suppl I) 1107-1113 (1999). These compounds, which are referred to as IMiDS™ (Celgene Corporation) or Immunomodulatory Drugs, show not only potent inhibition of TNF-α but also marked inhibition of LPS induced monocyte IL1β and IL12 production. LPS induced IL6 is also inhibited by immunomodulatory compounds, albeit partially. These compounds are potent stimulators of LPS induced IL10. Id. Particular examples of IMiD™s include, but are not limited to, the substituted 2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl) phthalimides and substituted 2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-1-oxoisoindoles described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,281,230 and 6,316,471, both to G. W. Muller, et al.

3. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention encompasses methods of treating and preventing certain types of cancer, including primary and metastatic cancer, as well as cancers that are refractory or resistant to conventional chemotherapy. The methods comprise administering to a patient in need of such treatment or prevention a therapeutically or prophylactically effective amount of an immunomodulatory compound, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, hydrate, stereoisomer, clathrate, or prodrug thereof. The invention also encompasses methods of managing certain cancers (e.g., preventing or prolonging their recurrence, or lengthening the time of remission) which comprise administering to a patient in need of such management a prophylactically effective amount of an immunomodulatory compound of the invention, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, hydrate, stereoisomer, clathrate, or prodrug thereof.

In particular methods of the invention, an immunomodulatory compound is administered in combination with a therapy conventionally used to treat, prevent or manage cancer. Examples of such conventional therapies include, but are not limited to, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, biological therapy and immunotherapy.

This invention also encompasses methods of treating, managing or preventing diseases and disorders other than cancer that are associated with, or characterized by, undesired angiogenesis, which comprise administering to a patient in need of such treatment, management or prevention a therapeutically or prophylactically effective amount of an immunomodulatory compound, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, hydrate, stereoisomer, clathrate, or prodrug thereof.

In other methods of the invention, an immunomodulatory compound is administered in combination with a therapy conventionally used to treat, prevent or manage diseases or disorders associated with, or characterized by, undesired angiogenesis. Examples of such conventional therapies include, but are not limited to, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, biological therapy and immunotherapy.

This invention encompasses pharmaceutical compositions, single unit dosage forms, dosing regimens and kits which comprise an immunomodulatory compound, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, hydrate, stereoisomer, clathrate, or prodrug thereof, and a second, or additional, active agent. Second active agents include specific combinations, or “cocktails,” of drugs.

4. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURE

FIG. 1 shows a comparison of the effects of 3-(4-amino-1-oxo-1,3-dihydro-isoindol-2-yl)-piperidine-2,6-dione (Revimid™) and thalidomide in inhibiting the proliferation of multiple myeloma (MM) cell lines in an in vitro study. The uptake of [3H]-thymidine by different MM cell lines (MM. 1S, Hs Sultan, U266 and RPMI-8226) was measured as an indicator of the cell proliferation.

5. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A first embodiment of the invention encompasses methods of treating, managing, or preventing cancer which comprises administering to a patient in need of such treatment or prevention a therapeutically or prophylactically effective amount of an immunomodulatory compound of the invention, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, hydrate, stereoisomer, clathrate, or prodrug thereof.

In particular methods encompassed by this embodiment, the immunomodulatory compound is administered in combination with another drug (“second active agent”) or method of treating, managing, or preventing cancer. Second active agents include small molecules and large molecules (e.g., proteins and antibodies), examples of which are provided herein, as well as stem cells. Methods, or therapies, that can be used in combination with the administration of the immunomodulatory compound include, but are not limited to, surgery, blood transfusions, immunotherapy, biological therapy, radiation therapy, and other non-drug based therapies presently used to treat, prevent or manage cancer.

Another embodiment of the invention encompasses methods of treating, managing or preventing diseases and disorders other than cancer that are characterized by undesired angiogenesis. These methods comprise the administration of a therapeutically or prophylactically effective amount of an immunomodulatory compound, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, hydrate, stereoisomer, clathrate, or prodrug thereof.

Examples of diseases and disorders associated with, or characterized by, undesired angiogenesis include, but are not limited to, inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, viral diseases, genetic diseases, allergic diseases, bacterial diseases, ocular neovascular diseases, choroidal neovascular diseases, retina neovascular diseases, and rubeosis (neovascularization of the angle).

In particular methods encompassed by this embodiment, the immunomodulatory compound is administer in combination with a second active agent or method of treating, managing, or preventing the disease or condition. Second active agents include small molecules and large molecules (e.g., proteins and antibodies), examples of which are provided herein, as well as stem cells. Methods, or therapies, that can be used in combination with the administration of the immunomodulatory compound include, but are not limited to, surgery, blood transfusions, immunotherapy, biological therapy, radiation therapy, and other non-drug based therapies presently used to treat, prevent or manage disease and conditions associated with, or characterized by, undesired angiogenesis.

The invention also encompasses pharmaceutical compositions (e.g., single unit dosage forms) that can be used in methods disclosed herein. Particular pharmaceutical compositions comprise an immunomodulatory compound of the invention, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, hydrate, stereoisomer, clathrate, or prodrug thereof, and a second active agent.

5.1 Immunomodulatory Compounds

Compounds used in the invention include immunomodulatory compounds that are racemic, stereomerically enriched or stereomerically pure, and pharmaceutically acceptable salts, solvates, hydrates, stereoisomers, clathrates, and prodrugs thereof. Preferred compounds used in the invention are small organic molecules having a molecular weight less than about 1,000 g/mol, and are not proteins, peptides, oligonucleotides, oligosaccharides or other macromolecules.

As used herein and unless otherwise indicated, the terms “immunomodulatory compounds” and “IMiDs™” (Celgene Corporation) encompasses small organic molecules that markedly inhibit TNF-α, LPS induced monocyte IL1β and IL12, and partially inhibit IL6 production. Specific immunomodulatory compounds are discussed below.

TNF-α is an inflammatory cytokine produced by macrophages and monocytes during acute inflammation. TNF-α is responsible for a diverse range of signaling events within cells. TNF-α may play a pathological role in cancer. Without being limited by theory, one of the biological effects exerted by the immunomodulatory compounds of the invention is the reduction of synthesis of TNF-α. Immunomodulatory compounds of the invention enhance the degradation of TNF-αmRNA.

Further, without being limited by theory, immunomodulatory compounds used in the invention may also be potent co-stimulators of T cells and increase cell proliferation dramatically in a dose dependent manner. Immunomodulatory compounds of the invention may also have a greater co-stimulatory effect on the CD8+ T cell subset than on the CD4+ T cell subset. In addition, the compounds preferably have anti-inflammatory properties, and efficiently co-stimulate T cells.

Specific examples of immunomodulatory compounds of the invention, include, but are not limited to, cyano and carboxy derivatives of substituted styrenes such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,929,117; 1-oxo-2-(2,6-dioxo-3-fluoropiperidin-3-yl) isoindolines and 1,3-dioxo-2-(2,6-dioxo-3-fluoropiperidine-3-yl) isoindolines such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,874,448; the tetra substituted 2-(2,6-dioxopiperdin-3-yl)-1-oxoisoindolines described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,798,368; 1-oxo and 1,3-dioxo-2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl) isoindolines (e.g., 4-methyl derivatives of thalidomide and EM-12), including, but not limited to, those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,517; and a class of non-polypeptide cyclic amides disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,698,579 and 5,877,200; analogs and derivatives of thalidomide, including hydrolysis products, metabolites, derivatives and precursors of thalidomide, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,593,990, 5,629,327, and 6,071,948 to D’Amato; aminothalidomide, as well as analogs, hydrolysis products, metabolites, derivatives and precursors of aminothalidomide, and substituted 2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl) phthalimides and substituted 2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-1-oxoisoindoles such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,281,230 and 6,316,471; isoindole-imide compounds such as those described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/972,487 filed on Oct. 5, 2001, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/032,286 filed on Dec. 21, 2001, and International Application No. PCT/US01/50401 (International Publication No. WO 02/059106). The entireties of each of the patents and patent applications identified herein are incorporated herein by reference. Immunomodulatory compounds of the invention do not include thalidomide.

Other specific immunomodulatory compounds of the invention include, but are not limited to, 1-oxo- and 1,3 dioxo-2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl) isoindolines substituted with amino in the benzo ring as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,517 which is incorporated herein by reference. These compounds have the structure I:

Figure US07968569-20110628-C00001


in which one of X and Y is C═O, the other of X and Y is C═O or CH2, and Ris hydrogen or lower alkyl, in particular methyl. Specific immunomodulatory compounds include, but are not limited to:

  • 1-oxo-2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-4-aminoisoindoline;
  • 1-oxo-2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-5-aminoisoindoline;
  • 1-oxo-2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-6-aminoisoindoline;
  • 1-oxo-2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-7-aminoisoindoline;
  • 1,3-dioxo-2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-4-aminoisoindoline; and
  • 1,3-dioxo-2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-5-aminoisoindoline.

Other specific immunomodulatory compounds of the invention belong to a class of substituted 2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl) phthalimides and substituted 2-(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-1-oxoisoindoles, such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,281,230; 6,316,471; 6,335,349; and 6,476,052, and International Patent Application No. PCT/US97/13375 (International Publication No. WO 98/03502), each of which is incorporated herein by reference. Compounds representative of this class are of the formulas:

Figure US07968569-20110628-C00002


wherein Ris hydrogen or methyl. In a separate embodiment, the invention encompasses the use of enantiomerically pure forms (e.g. optically pure (R) or (S) enantiomers) of these compounds.

Still other specific immunomodulatory compounds of the invention belong to a class of isoindole-imides disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/032,286 and 09/972,487, and International Application No. PCT/US01/50401 (International Publication No. WO 02/059106), each of which are incorporated herein by reference. Representative compounds are of formula II:

Figure US07968569-20110628-C00003

and pharmaceutically acceptable salts, hydrates, solvates, clathrates, enantiomers, diastereomers, racemates, and mixtures of stereoisomers thereof, wherein:

one of X and Y is C═O and the other is CHor C═O;

Ris H, (C1-C8)alkyl, (C3-C7)cycloalkyl, (C2-C8)alkenyl, (C2-C8)alkynyl, benzyl, aryl, (C0-C4)alkyl-(C1-C6)heterocycloalkyl, (C0-C4)alkyl-(C2-C5)heteroaryl, C(O)R3, C(S)R3, C(O)OR4, (C1-C8)alkyl-N(R6)2, (C1-C8)alkyl-OR5, (C1-C8)alkyl-C(O)OR5, C(O)NHR3, C(S)NHR3, C(O)NR3R3′, C(S)NR3R3′ or (C1-C8)alkyl-O(CO)R5;

Ris H, F, benzyl, (C1-C8)alkyl, (C2-C8)alkenyl, or (C2-C8)alkynyl;

Rand R3′ are independently (C1-C8)alkyl, (C3-C7)cycloalkyl, (C2-C8)alkenyl, (C2-C8)alkynyl, benzyl, aryl, (C0-C4)alkyl(C1-C6)heterocycloalkyl, (C0-C4)alkyl-(C2-C5)heteroaryl, (C0-C8)alkyl-N(R6)2, (C1-C8)alkyl-OR5, (C1-C8)alkyl-C(O)OR5, (C1-C8)alkyl-O(CO)R5, or C(O)OR5;

Ris (C1-C8)alkyl, (C2-C8)alkenyl, (C2-C8)alkynyl, (C1-C4)alkyl-OR5, benzyl, aryl, (C0-C4)alkyl-(C1-C6)heterocycloalkyl, or (C0-C4)alkyl-(C2-C5)heteroaryl;

Ris (C1-C8)alkyl, (C2-C8)alkenyl, (C2-C8)alkynyl, benzyl, aryl, or (C2-C5)heteroaryl;

each occurrence of Ris independently H, (C1-C8)alkyl, (C2-C8)alkenyl, (C2-C8)alkynyl, benzyl, aryl, (C2-C5)heteroaryl, or (C0-C8)alkyl-C(O)O—Ror the R6groups can join to form a heterocycloalkyl group;

n is 0 or 1; and

* represents a chiral-carbon center.

In specific compounds of formula II, when n is 0 then Ris (C3-C7)cycloalkyl, (C2-C8)alkenyl, (C2-C8)alkynyl, benzyl, aryl, (C0-C4)alkyl-(C1-C6)heterocycloalkyl, (C0-C4)alkyl-(C2-C5)heteroaryl, C(O)R3, C(O)OR4, (C1-C8)alkyl-N(R6)2, (C1-C8)alkyl-OR5, (C1-C8)alkyl-C(O)OR5, C(S)NHR3, or (C1-C8)alkyl O(CO)R5;

Ris H or (C1-C8)alkyl; and

Ris (C1-C8)alkyl, (C3-C7)cycloalkyl, (C2-C8)alkenyl, (C2-C8)alkynyl, benzyl, aryl, (C0-C4)alkyl-(C1-C6)heterocycloalkyl, (C0-C4)alkyl-(C2-C5)heteroaryl, (C5-C8)alkyl-N(R6)2; (C0-C8)alkyl-NH—C(O)O—R5; (C1-C8)alkyl-OR5, (C1-C8)alkyl-C(O)OR5, (C1-C8)alkyl-O(CO)R5, or C(O)OR5; and the other variables have the same definitions.

In other specific compounds of formula II, Ris H or (C1-C4)alkyl.

In other specific compounds of formula II, Ris (C1-C8)alkyl or benzyl.

In other specific compounds of formula II, Ris H, (C1-C8)alkyl, benzyl, CH2OCH3, CH2CH2OCH3, or

Figure US07968569-20110628-C00004

In another embodiment of the compounds of formula II, Ris

Figure US07968569-20110628-C00005


wherein Q is O or S, and each occurrence of Ris independently H, (C1-C8)alkyl, benzyl, CH2OCH3, or CH2CH2OCH3.

In other specific compounds of formula II, Ris C(O)R3.

In other specific compounds of formula II, Ris (C0-C4)alkyl-(C2-C5)heteroaryl, (C1-C5)alkyl, aryl, or (C0-C4)alkyl-OR5.

In other specific compounds of formula II, heteroaryl is pyridyl, furyl, or thienyl.

In other specific compounds of formula II, Ris C(O)OR4.

In other specific compounds of formula II, the H of C(O)NHC(O) can be replaced with (C1-C4)alkyl, aryl, or benzyl.

Still other specific immunomodulatory compounds of the invention belong to a class of isoindole-imides disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/781,179, International Publication No. WO 98/54170, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,395,754, each of which are incorporated herein by reference. Representative compounds are of formula III:

Figure US07968569-20110628-C00006


and pharmaceutically acceptable salts, hydrates, solvates, clathrates, enantiomers, diastereomers, racemates, and mixtures of stereoisomers thereof, wherein:

one of X and Y is C═O and the other is CHor C═O;

R is H or CH2OCOR′;

(i) each of R1, R2, R3, or R4, independently of the others, is halo, alkyl of 1 to 4 carbon atoms, or alkoxy of 1 to 4 carbon atoms or (ii) one of R1, R2, R3, or Ris nitro or —NHRand the remaining of R1, R2, R3, or Rare hydrogen;

Ris hydrogen or alkyl of 1 to 8 carbons

Rhydrogen, alkyl of 1 to 8 carbon atoms, benzo, chloro, or fluoro;

R′ is R7—CHR10—N(R8R9);

Ris m-phenylene or p-phenylene or —(CnH2n)— in which n has a value of 0 to 4;

each of Rand Rtaken independently of the other is hydrogen or alkyl of 1 to 8 carbon atoms, or Rand Rtaken together are tetramethylene, pentamethylene, hexamethylene, or —CH2CH2[X]X1CH2CH2— in which [X]Xis —O—, —S—, or —NH—;

R10 is hydrogen, alkyl of to 8 carbon atoms, or phenyl; and

* represents a chiral-carbon center.

The most preferred immunomodulatory compounds of the invention are 4-(amino)-2-(2,6-dioxo(3-piperidyl))-isoindoline-1,3-dione and 3-(4-amino-1-oxo-1,3-dihydro-isoindol-2-yl)-piperidine-2,6-dione. The compounds can be obtained via standard, synthetic methods (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,517, incorporated herein by reference). The compounds are available from Celgene Corporation, Warren, N.J. 4-(Amino)-2-(2,6-dioxo(3-piperidyl))-isoindoline-1,3-dione (ACTIMID™) has the following chemical structure:

Figure US07968569-20110628-C00007


The compound 3-(4-amino-1-oxo-1,3-dihydro-isoindol-2-yl)-piperidine-2,6-dione (REVIMID™) has the following chemical structure:

Figure US07968569-20110628-C00008

Compounds of the invention can either be commercially purchased or prepared according to the methods described in the patents or patent publications disclosed herein. Further, optically pure compounds can be asymmetrically synthesized or resolved using known resolving agents or chiral columns as well as other standard synthetic organic chemistry techniques.

As used herein and unless otherwise indicated, the term “pharmaceutically acceptable salt” encompasses non-toxic acid and base addition salts of the compound to which the term refers. Acceptable non-toxic acid addition salts include those derived from organic and inorganic acids or bases know in the art, which include, for example, hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, methanesulphonic acid, acetic acid, tartaric acid, lactic acid, succinic acid, citric acid, malic acid, maleic acid, sorbic acid, aconitic acid, salicylic acid, phthalic acid, embolic acid, enanthic acid, and the like.

Compounds that are acidic in nature are capable of forming salts with various pharmaceutically acceptable bases. The bases that can be used to prepare pharmaceutically acceptable base addition salts of such acidic compounds are those that form non-toxic base addition salts, i.e., salts containing pharmacologically acceptable cations such as, but not limited to, alkali metal or alkaline earth metal salts and the calcium, magnesium, sodium or potassium salts in particular. Suitable organic bases include, but are not limited to, N,N-dibenzylethylenediamine, chloroprocaine, choline, diethanolamine, ethylenediamine, meglumaine (N-methylglucamine), lysine, and procaine.

As used herein and unless otherwise indicated, the term “prodrug” means a derivative of a compound that can hydrolyze, oxidize, or otherwise react under biological conditions (in vitro or in vivo) to provide the compound. Examples of prodrugs include, but are not limited to, derivatives of immunomodulatory compounds of the invention that comprise biohydrolyzable moieties such as biohydrolyzable amides, biohydrolyzable esters, biohydrolyzable carbamates, biohydrolyzable carbonates, biohydrolyzable ureides, and biohydrolyzable phosphate analogues. Other examples of prodrugs include derivatives of immunomodulatory compounds of the invention that comprise —NO, —NO2, —ONO, or —ONOmoieties. Prodrugs can typically be prepared using well-known methods, such as those described in 1 Burger’s Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery, 172-178, 949-982 (Manfred E. Wolff ed., 5th ed. 1995), and Design of Prodrugs (H. Bundgaard ed., Elselvier, N.Y. 1985).

As used herein and unless otherwise indicated, the terms “biohydrolyzable amide,” “biohydrolyzable ester,” “biohydrolyzable carbamate,” “biohydrolyzable carbonate,” “biohydrolyzable ureide,” “biohydrolyzable phosphate” mean an amide, ester, carbamate, carbonate, ureide, or phosphate, respectively, of a compound that either: 1) does not interfere with the biological activity of the compound but can confer upon that compound advantageous properties in vivo, such as uptake, duration of action, or onset of action; or 2) is biologically inactive but is converted in vivo to the biologically active compound. Examples of biohydrolyzable esters include, but are not limited to, lower alkyl esters, lower acyloxyalkyl esters (such as acetoxylmethyl, acetoxyethyl, aminocarbonyloxymethyl, pivaloyloxymethyl, and pivaloyloxyethyl esters), lactonyl esters (such as phthalidyl and thiophthalidyl esters), lower alkoxyacyloxyalkyl esters (such as methoxycarbonyl-oxymethyl, ethoxycarbonyloxyethyl and isopropoxycarbonyloxyethyl esters), alkoxyalkyl esters, choline esters, and acylamino alkyl esters (such as acetamidomethyl esters). Examples of biohydrolyzable amides include, but are not limited to, lower alkyl amides, α-amino acid amides, alkoxyacyl amides, and alkylaminoalkylcarbonyl amides. Examples of biohydrolyzable carbamates include, but are not limited to, lower alkylamines, substituted ethylenediamines, amino acids, hydroxyalkylamines, heterocyclic and heteroaromatic amines, and polyether amines.

Various immunomodulatory compounds of the invention contain one or more chiral centers, and can exist as racemic mixtures of enantiomers or mixtures of diastereomers. This invention encompasses the use of stereomerically pure forms of such compounds, as well as the use of mixtures of those forms. For example, mixtures comprising equal or unequal amounts of the enantiomers of a particular immunomodulatory compounds of the invention may be used in methods and compositions of the invention. These isomers may be asymmetrically synthesized or resolved using standard techniques such as chiral columns or chiral resolving agents. See, e.g., Jacques, J., et al., Enantiomers, Racemates and Resolutions(Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1981); Wilen, S. H., et al., Tetrahedron 33:2725 (1977); Eliel, E. L., Stereochemistry of Carbon Compounds (McGraw-Hill, N.Y., 1962); and Wilen, S. H., Tables of Resolving Agents and Optical Resolutions p. 268 (E. L. Eliel, Ed., Univ. of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Ind., 1972).

As used herein and unless otherwise indicated, the term “stereomerically pure” means a composition that comprises one stereoisomer of a compound and is substantially free of other stereoisomers of that compound. For example, a stereomerically pure composition of a compound having one chiral center will be substantially free of the opposite enantiomer of the compound. A stereomerically pure composition of a compound having two chiral centers will be substantially free of other diastereomers of the compound. A typical stereomerically pure compound comprises greater than about 80% by weight of one stereoisomer of the compound and less than about 20% by weight of other stereoisomers of the compound, more preferably greater than about 90% by weight of one stereoisomer of the compound and less than about 10% by weight of the other stereoisomers of the compound, even more preferably greater than about 95% by weight of one stereoisomer of the compound and less than about 5% by weight of the other stereoisomers of the compound, and most preferably greater than about 97% by weight of one stereoisomer of the compound and less than about 3% by weight of the other stereoisomers of the compound. As used herein and unless otherwise indicated, the term “stereomerically enriched” means a composition that comprises greater than about 60% by weight of one stereoisomer of a compound, preferably greater than about 70% by weight, more preferably greater than about 80% by weight of one stereoisomer of a compound. As used herein and unless otherwise indicated, the term “enantiomerically pure” means a stereomerically pure composition of a compound having one chiral center. Similarly, the term “stereomerically enriched” means a stereomerically enriched composition of a compound having one chiral center.

It should be noted that if there is a discrepancy between a depicted structure and a name given that structure, the depicted structure is to be accorded more weight. In addition, if the stereochemistry of a structure or a portion of a structure is not indicated with, for example, bold or dashed lines, the structure or portion of the structure is to be interpreted as encompassing all stereoisomers of it.

5.2 Second Active Agents

Immunomodulatory compounds can be combined with other pharmacologically active compounds (“second active agents”) in methods and compositions of the invention. It is believed that certain combinations work synergistically in the treatment of particular types of cancer and certain diseases and conditions associated with, or characterized by, undesired angiogenesis. Immunomodulatory compounds can also work to alleviate adverse effects associated with certain second active agents, and some second active agents can be used to alleviate adverse effects associated with immunomodulatory compounds.

One or more second active ingredients or agents can be used in the methods and compositions of the invention together with an immunomodulatory compound. Second active agents can be large molecules (e.g., proteins) or small molecules (e.g., synthetic inorganic, organometallic, or organic molecules).

Examples of large molecule active agents include, but are not limited to, hematopoietic growth factors, cytokines, and monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. Typical large molecule active agents are biological molecules, such as naturally occurring or artificially made proteins. Proteins that are particularly useful in this invention include proteins that stimulate the survival and/or proliferation of hematopoietic precursor cells and immunologically active poietic cells in vitro or in vivo. Others stimulate the division and differentiation of committed erythroid progenitors in cells in vitro or in vivo. Particular proteins include, but are not limited to: interleukins, such as IL-2 (including recombinant IL-II (“rIL2”) and canarypox IL-2), IL-10, IL-12, and IL-18; interferons, such as interferon alfa-2a, interferon alfa-2b, interferon alfa-n1, interferon alfa-n3, interferon beta-I a, and interferon gamma-I b; GM-CF and GM-CSF; and EPO.

Particular proteins that can be used in the methods and compositions of the invention include, but are not limited to: filgrastim, which is sold in the United States under the trade name Neupogen® (Amgen, Thousand Oaks, Calif.); sargramostim, which is sold in the United States under the trade name Leukine® (Immunex, Seattle, Wash.); and recombinant EPO, which is sold in the United States under the trade name Epogen® (Amgen, Thousand Oaks, Calif.).

Recombinant and mutated forms of GM-CSF can be prepared as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,391,485; 5,393,870; and 5,229,496; all of which are incorporated herein by reference. Recombinant and mutated forms of G-CSF can be prepared as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,810,643; 4,999,291; 5,528,823; and 5,580,755; all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

This invention encompasses the use of native, naturally occurring, and recombinant proteins. The invention further encompasses mutants and derivatives (e.g., modified forms) of naturally occurring proteins that exhibit, in vivo, at least some of the pharmacological activity of the proteins upon which they are based. Examples of mutants include, but are not limited to, proteins that have one or more amino acid residues that differ from the corresponding residues in the naturally occurring forms of the proteins. Also encompassed by the term “mutants” are proteins that lack carbohydrate moieties normally present in their naturally occurring forms (e.g., nonglycosylated forms). Examples of derivatives include, but are not limited to, pegylated derivatives and fusion proteins, such as proteins formed by fusing IgG1 or IgG3 to the protein or active portion of the protein of interest. See, e.g., Penichet, M. L. and Morrison, S. L., J. Immunol. Methods 248:91-101 (2001).

Antibodies that can be used in combination with compounds of the invention include monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies. Examples of antibodies include, but are not limited to, trastuzumab (Herceptin®), rituximab (Rituxan®), bevacizumab (Avastin™), pertuzumab (Omnitarg™), tositumomab (Bexxar®), edrecolomab (Panorex®), and G250. Compounds of the invention can also be combined with, or used in combination with, anti-TNF-α antibodies.

Other posts on Revlimid, Celgene, and other such Patent Litigation on this Open Access Journal Include:

From Thalidomide to Revlimid: Celgene to Bristol Myers to possibly Pfizer; A Curation of Deals, Discovery and the State of Pharma

REVLIMID® (Lenalidomide) Approved by the European Commission for the Treatment of Adult Patients with Previously Untreated Multiple Myeloma who are Not Eligible for Transplant

FDA: Rejects NDA filing: “clinical and non-clinical pharmacology sections of the application were not sufficient to complete a review”: Celgene’s Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis Drug – Ozanimod

The top 15 best-selling cancer drugs in 2022 & Projected Sales in 2020 of World’s Top Ten Oncology Drugs

Monoclonal antibody treatment of Multiple Myeloma

At California Central District Court Juno Therapeutics, Inc. et al v. Kite Pharma, Inc. – Multi-party Patent Infringement

 

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Record Innovations in Drug Discovery by Koch Institute @MIT Members and Affiliates

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

 

In Good Company

Trovagene announced a new patent for the use of the drug onvansertib in combination with other anti-androgen drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer. Last fall, Trovagene secured exclusive rights to develop combination therapies and clinical biomarkers for prostate cancer based in part on Bridge Project-funded research. Read more.

Lyndra Therapeutics, co-founded by KI member Bob Langer, raised $55 million in its Series B round, with new investors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Gilead Sciences. Phase 2 trials for its ultra long-acting drug delivery capsule are expected to begin next year. Read more.

Dragonfly Therapeutics, co-founded by KI director Tyler Jacks, has committed $10 million to launch the first clinical studies of its TriNKETs (Tri-specific, NK cell Engager Therapies) platform for both solid tumor and hematological cancers. Read more.

Following its record-breaking IPO, Moderna Therapeutics (co-founded by KI member Bob Langer) published preclinical data in Science Translational Medicine demonstrating the promise of its mRNA-2752 program in several cancers. Read more.

Dewpoint Therapeutics launched with a $60 million Series A, aims to translate recent insights into biomolecular condensates from the laboratory of co-founder and KI member Rick Young to drug discovery. Read more.

KI member Bob Langer and collaborator Omid Farokhzad co-founded Seer— combining nanotechnology, protein chemistry, and machine learning—to develop liquid biopsy tests for the early detection of cancer and other diseases. Read more.

Epizyme, co-founded by KI member Bob Horvitz, is submitting a New Drug Application to gain accelerated approval of tazemetostat for patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma. Read more.

Ribon Therapeutics, founded by former KI member Paul Chang, launched with $65 million in a Series B funding round with Victoria Richon, a veteran of Sanofi and Epizyme, at the helm. Ribon focuses on developing PARP7 inhibitors for cancer treatment. Read more.

SOURCE

From: MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research <cancersolutions=mit.edu@cmail19.com> on behalf of MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research <cancersolutions@mit.edu>

Reply-To: <ki-communications@mit.edu>

Date: Wednesday, February 6, 2019 at 3:15 PM

To: Aviva Lev-Ari <AvivaLev-Ari@alum.berkeley.edu>

Subject: Lung Microbiome Corrupted in Cancer; Angelika Amon wins 2019 Vilcek Award; Lunch Lines of Inquiry

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Reporter: Gail S. Thornton

 

From The Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com)

Published January 9, 2019

Health-Care CEOs Outline Strategies at J.P. Morgan Conference

Chiefs at Johnson & Johnson, CVS discuss what’s next on a range of industry issues

One of the biggest health conferences of the year for investors, the J.P. Morgan Health-Care Conference, is taking place this week in San Francisco. Here are some of the hot topics covered at the four-day event, which wraps up Thursday.

BioMarin Mulls Payment Plans

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. CEO Jean-Jacques Bienaimé said he would consider pursuing installment payment arrangements for the biotech’s experimental gene therapy for hemophilia. At the conference, Mr. Bienaimé told the Wall Street Journal that the one-time infusion, Valrox, is likely to cost in the millions because studies have shown it can eliminate bleeding episodes in patients, and current hemophilia treatments taken chronically can cost millions over several years. “We’re not trying to charge more than existing therapies,” he said. “We want to offer a better treatment at the same or lower cost.”

Johnson & Johnson Warns on Pricing

As politicians hammer drug prices, Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky suggested companies need to police themselves. At the conference, Mr. Gorsky told investors that drug companies should price drugs reasonably and be transparent. “If we don’t do this as an industry, I think there will be other alternatives that will be more onerous for us,” Mr. Gorsky says. Some drugmakers pulled back from price increases in mid-2018 amid heightened political scrutiny, but prices went up for many drugs at the start of 2019.

Marijuana-Derived Drugs Show Promise

 

CVS Discusses New Stores

CVS Health Corp. Chief Executive Larry Merlo began showing initial concepts the company will be testing as it begins piloting new models of its drugstores that incorporate its Aetna combination. The first new test store will open next month in Houston, he told investors, and it will include expanded health-care services including a new concierge who will help patients with questions. 

Aetna Savings On the Way

Mr. Merlo also spelled out when the company will achieve the initial $750 million in synergies it has promised from the CVS-Aetna deal. In the first quarter, he said the company will see benefits from consolidating corporate functions. Savings from procurement and aligning lists of covered drugs should be seen in the first half, he says. Medical-cost savings will start affecting results toward the end of the year, he noted. 

Lilly Cuts Price

Drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. expects average net US pricing for its drugs–after rebates and discounts–to decline in the low- to mid-single digits on a percentage basis this year, Chief Financial Officer Josh Smiley told the Journal. Lilly’s net prices had risen during the first half of 2018, but dropped in the third quarter as the company took a “restrained approach,” Mr. Smiley said. Lilly, which hasn’t yet reported fourth-quarter results, took some list price increases for cancer drugs in late December but hasn’t raised prices in the new year, he said.

Peter Loftus at peter.loftus@wsj.com and Anna Wilde Mathews at anna.mathews@wsj.com

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37th Annual J.P. Morgan HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE: News at #JPM2019 for Jan. 10, 2019: Deals and Announcements

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

From Biospace.com

 

JP Morgan Healthcare Conference Update: Sage, Mersana, Shutdown Woes and Babies

Speaker presenting to audience at a conference

With the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference winding down, companies remain busy striking deals and informing investors about pipeline advances. BioSpace snagged some of the interesting news bits to come out of the conference from Wednesday.

SAGE Therapeutics – Following a positive Phase III report that its postpartum depression treatment candidate SAGE-217 hit the mark in its late-stage clinical trial, Sage Therapeutics is eying the potential to have multiple treatment options available for patients. At the start of J.P. Morgan, Sage said that patients treated with SAGE-217 had a statistically significant improvement of 17.8 points in the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, compared to 13.6 for placebo. The company plans to seek approval for SAGE-2017, but before that, the FDA is expected to make a decision on Zulresso in March. Zulresso already passed muster from advisory committees in November, and if approved, would be the first drug specifically for postpartum depression. In an interview with the Business Journal, Chief Business Officer Mike Cloonan said the company believes there is room in the market for both medications, particularly since the medications address different patient populations.

 

Mersana Therapeutics – After a breakup with Takeda Pharmaceutical and the shelving of its lead product, Cambridge, Mass.-based Mersana is making a new path. Even though a partial clinical hold was lifted following the death of a patient the company opted to shelve development of XMT-1522. During a presentation at JPM, CEO Anna Protopapas noted that many other companies are developing therapies that target the HER2 protein, which led to the decision, according to the Boston Business Journal. Protopapas said the HER2 space is highly competitive and now the company will focus on its other asset, XMT-1536, an ADC targeting NaPi2b, an antigen highly expressed in the majority of non-squamous NSCLC and epithelial ovarian cancer. XMT-1536 is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials for NaPi2b-expressing cancers, including ovarian cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and other cancers. Data on XMT-1536 is expected in the first half of 2019.

Novavax – During a JPM presentation, Stan Erck, CEO of Novavax, pointed to the company’s RSV vaccine, which is in late-stage development. The vaccine is being developed for the mother, in order to protect an infant. The mother transfers the antibodies to the infant, which will provide the baby with protection from RSV in its first six months. Erck called the program historic. He said the Phase III program is in its fourth year and the company has vaccinated 4,636 women. He said they are tracking the women and the babies. Researchers call the mothers every week through the first six months of the baby’s life to acquire data. Erck said the company anticipates announcing trial data this quarter. If approved, Erck said the market for the vaccine could be a significant revenue driver.

“You have 3.9 million birth cohorts and we expect 80 percent to 90 percent of those mothers to be vaccinated as a pediatric vaccine and in the U.S. the market rate is somewhere between $750 million and a $1 billion and then double that for worldwide market. So it’s a large market and we will be first to market in this,” Erck said, according to a transcript of the presentation.

Denali Therapeutics – Denali forged a collaboration with Germany-based SIRION Biotech to develop gene therapies for central nervous disorders. The two companies plan to develop adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors to enable therapeutics to cross the blood-brain barrier for clinical applications in neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS and certain other diseases of the CNS.

AstraZeneca – Pharma giant AstraZeneca reported that in 2019 net prices on average across the portfolio will decrease versus 2018. With a backdrop of intense public and government scrutiny over pricing, Market Access head Rick Suarez said the company is increasing its pricing transparency. Additionally, he said the company is looking at new ways to price drugs, such as value-based reimbursement agreements with payers, Pink Sheet reported.

Amarin Corporation – As the company eyes a potential label expansion approval for its cardiovascular disease treatment Vascepa, Amarin Corporation has been proactively hiring hundreds of sales reps. In the fourth quarter, the company hired 265 new sales reps, giving the company a sales team of more than 400, CEO John Thero said. Thero noted that is a label expansion is granted by the FDA, “revenues will increase at least 50 percent over what we did in the prior year, which would give us revenues of approximate $350 million in 2019.”

Government Woes – As the partial government shutdown in the United States continues into its third week, biotech leaders at JPM raised concern as the FDA’s carryover funds are dwindling. With no new funding coming in, reviews of New Drug Applications won’t be able to continue past February, Pink Sheet said. While reviews are currently ongoing, no New Drug Applications are being accepted by the FDA at this time. With the halt of NDA applications, that has also caused some companies to delay plans for an initial public offering. It’s hard to raise potential investor excitement without the regulatory support of a potential drug approval. During a panel discussion, Jonathan Leff, a partner at Deerfield Management, noted that the ongoing government shutdown is a reminder of how “overwhelmingly dependent the whole industry of biotech and drug development is on government,” Pink Sheet said.

Other posts on the JP Morgan 2019 Healthcare Conference on this Open Access Journal include:

#JPM19 Conference: Lilly Announces Agreement To Acquire Loxo Oncology

36th Annual J.P. Morgan HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE January 8 – 11, 2018

37th Annual J.P. Morgan HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE: #JPM2019 for Jan. 8, 2019; Opening Videos, Novartis expands Cell Therapies, January 7 – 10, 2019, Westin St. Francis Hotel | San Francisco, California

37th Annual J.P. Morgan HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE: News at #JPM2019 for Jan. 8, 2019: Deals and Announcements

 

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Live Conference Coverage @Medcitynews Converge 2018 @Philadelphia: Promising Drugs and Breaking Down Silos

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

Promising Drugs, Pricing and Access

The drug pricing debate rages on. What are the solutions to continuing to foster research and innovation, while ensuring access and affordability for patients? Can biosimilars and generics be able to expand market access in the U.S.?

Moderator: Bunny Ellerin, Director, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management Program, Columbia Business School
Speakers:
Patrick Davish, AVP, Global & US Pricing/Market Access, Merck
Robert Dubois M.D., Chief Science Officer and Executive Vice President, National Pharmaceutical Council
Gary Kurzman, M.D., Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Healthcare, Safeguard Scientifics
Steven Lucio, Associate Vice President, Pharmacy Services, Vizient

What is working and what needs to change in pricing models?

Robert:  He sees so many players in the onStevencology space discovering new drugs and other drugs are going generic (that is what is working).  However are we spending too much on cancer care relative to other diseases (their initiative Going Beyond the Surface)

Steven:  the advent of biosimilars is good for the industry

Patrick:  large effort in oncology, maybe too much (750 trials on Keytruda) and he says pharma is spending on R&D (however clinical trials take large chunk of this money)

Robert: cancer has gotten a free ride but cost per year relative to benefit looks different than other diseases.  Are we overinvesting in cancer or is that a societal decision

Gary:  maybe as we become more specific with precision medicines high prices may be a result of our success in specifically targeting a mutation.  We need to understand the targeted drugs and outcomes.

Patrick: “Cancer is the last big frontier” but he says prices will come down in most cases.  He gives the example of Hep C treatment… the previous only therapeutic option was a very toxic yearlong treatment but the newer drugs may be more cost effective and safer

Steven: Our blockbuster drugs could diffuse the expense but now with precision we can’t diffuse the expense over a large number of patients

President’s Cancer Panel Recommendation

Six recommendations

  1. promoting value based pricing
  2. enabling communications of cost
  3. financial toxicity
  4. stimulate competition biosimilars
  5. value based care
  6. invest in biomedical research

Patrick: the government pricing regime is hurting.  Alot of practical barriers but Merck has over 200 studies on cost basis

Robert:  many concerns/impetus started in Europe on pricing as they are a set price model (EU won’t pay more than x for a drug). US is moving more to outcomes pricing. For every one health outcome study three studies did not show a benefit.  With cancer it is tricky to establish specific health outcomes.  Also Medicare gets best price status so needs to be a safe harbor for payers and biggest constraint is regulatory issues.

Steven: They all want value based pricing but we don’t have that yet and there is a challenge to understand the nuances of new therapies.  Hard to align all the stakeholders together so until some legislation starts to change the reimbursement-clinic-patient-pharma obstacles.  Possibly the big data efforts discussed here may help align each stakeholders goals.

Gary: What is the data necessary to understand what is happening to patients and until we have that information it still will be complicated to determine where investors in health care stand at in this discussion

Robert: on an ICER methods advisory board: 1) great concern of costs how do we determine fair value of drug 2) ICER is only game in town, other orgs only give recommendations 3) ICER evaluates long term value (cost per quality year of life), budget impact (will people go bankrupt)

4) ICER getting traction in the public eye and advocates 5) the problem is ICER not ready for prime time as evidence keeps changing or are they keeping the societal factors in mind and they don’t have total transparancy in their methodology

Steven: We need more transparency into all the costs associated with the drug and therapy and value-based outcome.  Right now price is more of a black box.

Moderator: pointed to a recent study which showed that outpatient costs are going down while hospital based care cost is going rapidly up (cost of site of care) so we need to figure out how to get people into lower cost setting

Breaking Down Silos in Research

“Silo” is healthcare’s four-letter word. How are researchers, life science companies and others sharing information that can benefit patients more quickly? Hear from experts at institutions that are striving to tear down the walls that prevent data from flowing.

Moderator: Vini Jolly, Executive Director, Woodside Capital Partners
Speakers:
Ardy Arianpour, CEO & Co-Founder, Seqster @seqster
Lauren Becnel, Ph.D., Real World Data Lead for Oncology, Pfizer
Rakesh Mathew, Innovation, Research, & Development Lead, HealthShareExchange
David Nace M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Innovaccer

Seqster: Seqster is a secure platform that helps you and your family manage medical records, DNA, fitness, and nutrition data—all in one place. Founder has a genomic sequencing background but realized sequence  information needs to be linked with medical records.

HealthShareExchange.org :

HealthShare Exchange envisions a trusted community of healthcare stakeholders collaborating to deliver better care to consumers in the greater Philadelphia region. HealthShare Exchange will provide secure access to health information to enable preventive and cost-effective care; improve quality of patient care; and facilitate care transitions. They have partnered with multiple players in healthcare field and have data on over 7 million patients.

Innovacer

Data can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be this way. To drive healthcare efficiency, we designed a modular suite of products for a smooth transition into a data-driven world within 4 weeks. Why does it take so much money to move data around and so slowly?

What is interoperatibility?

Ardy: We knew in genomics field how to build algorithms to analyze big data but how do we expand this from a consumer standpoint and see and share your data.

Lauren: how can we use the data between patients, doctors, researchers?  On the research side genomics represent only 2% of data.  Silos are one issue but figuring out the standards for data (collection, curation, analysis) is not set. Still need to improve semantic interoperability. For example Flatiron had good annotated data on male metastatic breast cancer.

David: Technical interopatabliltiy (platform), semantic interopatability (meaning or word usage), format (syntactic) interopatibility (data structure).  There is technical interoperatiblity between health system but some semantic but formats are all different (pharmacies use different systems and write different prescriptions using different suppliers).  In any value based contract this problem is a big issue now (we are going to pay you based on the quality of your performance then there is big need to coordinate across platforms).  We can solve it by bringing data in real time in one place and use mapping to integrate the format (need quality control) then need to make the data democratized among players.

Rakesh:  Patients data should follow the patient. Of Philadelphia’s 12 health systems we had a challenge to make data interoperatable among them so tdhey said to providers don’t use portals and made sure hospitals were sending standardized data. Health care data is complex.

David: 80% of clinical data is noise. For example most eMedical Records are text. Another problem is defining a patient identifier which US does not believe in.

 

 

 

 

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CHI’s Discovery on Target, Sheraton Boston, Sept. 25-28, 2018

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

ANNOUNCEMENT

Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence (LPBI) Group is a selected CHI Business Partner for Media Communication for this event as well a provider of REAL TIME PRESS COVERAGE for this cardinal event in the domain of  Drug Discovery and Drug Delivery.

Dr. Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, Editor-in-Chief, PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com  will be in attendance covering this event for the Press using Social Media via 12 Channels

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What is the Role of the Editor-in-Chief at PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com 

Editor-in-Chief’s Roles and Accomplishments

1        Curation Methodology Development

Leadership we provide on curation of scientific findings in the eScientific publishing for Medical Education contents.

In Section 1, the Leadership we provide on curation of scientific findings in the eScientific publishing for Medical Education contents is demonstrated by a subset of several outstanding curations with high electronic Viewer volume. Each article included presents unique content contribution to Medical Clinical Education.

·       These articles are extracted from the list of all Journal articles with >1,000 eReaders, 4/28/2012 to 1/29/2018.

Article Title,         # of electronic Viewers,         Author(s) Name

Is the Warburg Effect the Cause or the Effect of Cancer: A 21st Century View?                      16,114 Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Do Novel Anticoagulants Affect the PT/INR? The Cases of XARELTO (rivaroxaban) and PRADAXA (dabigatran) 11,606 Vivek Lal, MBBS, MD, FCIR,

Justin D. Pearlman, MD, PhD, FACC and

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Clinical Indications for Use of Inhaled Nitric Oxide (iNO) in the Adult Patient Market: Clinical Outcomes after Use, Therapy Demand and Cost of Care

 

 5,865 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR-gamma) Receptors Activation: PPARγ transrepression for Angiogenesis in Cardiovascular Disease and PPARγ transactivation for Treatment of Diabetes                  1,919 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN  

 

Bystolic’s generic Nebivolol – Positive Effect on circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells Endogenous Augmentation  1,059 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

Triple Antihypertensive Combination Therapy Significantly Lowers Blood Pressure in Hard-to-Treat Patients with Hypertension and Diabetes  1,339 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

Clinical Trials Results for Endothelin System: Pathophysiological role in Chronic Heart Failure, Acute Coronary Syndromes and MI – Marker of Disease Severity or Genetic Determination?  1,472 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Treatment of Refractory Hypertension via Percutaneous Renal Denervation  1,085 Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

2        Content Creation and Key Opinion Leader (KOL) Recognition

2.1     Volume of Articles in the Journal and in the 16 Volume-BioMed e-Series

Select

Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN 2012pharmaceutical

3,064 Articles

·       All  (5,288)

avivalev-ari@alum.berkeley.edu Administrator 3064

2.1     Volume of Articles in the Journal and in the 16 Volume-BioMed e-Series

1.   Volume of Articles in the Journal since Journal inception on 4/28/2012:

·       Total articles by ALL authors in Journal Archive on 1/29/2018 = 5,288

·       ALL articles/posts Authored, Curated, Reported by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN = 3,064

2.   Volume of Articles in the 16 Volume-BioMed e-Series

·    Editorial & Publication of Articles in e-Books by Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence: Contributions of Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/16/editorial-publication-of-articles-in-e-books-by-leaders-in-pharmaceutical-business-intelligence-contributions-of-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn/

·       LPBI Group’s Founder: Biography and Bibliographies – Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/founder/

 

2.2     Digital Presence measured by eViews: Clicks on article by Author Name

Top Authors for all days ending 2018-01-29 (Summarized)

All Time

Author Name electronic Views
Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN [2012pharmaceutical]

352,153

 

Our TEAM 5,934  

 

Founder 3,257
BioMed e-Series 3,140

 

Journal PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com 2,214
About 2,054
  VISION   2,803  

 


LPBI Group
            1,201

2.3     Digital KOL Parameters

Key Opinion Leader (KOL) – Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, as Evidenced by

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/07/21/key-opinion-leader-kol-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn-as-evidenced-by/

 

3        Team building: Editors and Expert, Authors, Writers

Our Team

Selection of Journal’s Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and BioMed e-Series Content Consultant (CC): Series B, C, D, E

L.H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP

Editorial & Publication of Articles in e-Books by  Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence:  Contributions of Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/10/16/editorial-publication-of-articles-in-e-books-by-leaders-in-pharmaceutical-business-intelligence-contributions-of-larry-h-bernstein-md-fcap/

4        Book Title Generation and Cover Page Design

As BioMed e-Series Editor–in-Chief, I was responsible for the following functions of product design and product launch

·       16 Title creations for e-Books

·       Designed 16 Cover Pages for a 16-Volume e-Books e-Series in BioMed

·       Designed Series A eTOCs and approved of all 16 electronic Table of Contents (eTOCs), working in tandem with all the Editors of each volume and all the Author contributors of article contents in the Journal.

·       Commissioned Articles by Authors/Curators per Author’s expertise on a daily basis

 

Below, see Volume Titles and Cover Pages:

13 LIVE results for Kindle Store: “Aviva Lev-Ari”

 

 

The VOICES of Patients, Hospitals CEOs, Health Care Providers, Caregivers and Families: Personal Experience with Critical Care and Invasive Medical Procedures … E: Patient-Centered Medicine Book 1)

Oct 16, 2017 | Kindle eBook

by Larry H. Bernstein and Aviva Lev-Ari

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$49.00$ 49 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Cancer Therapies: Metabolic, Genomics, Interventional, Immunotherapy and Nanotechnology in Therapy Delivery (Series C Book 2)

May 13, 2017 | Kindle eBook

by Larry H. Bernstein and Demet Sag

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$100.00$ 100 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

The Immune System, Stress Signaling, Infectious Diseases and Therapeutic Implications: VOLUME 2: Infectious Diseases and Therapeutics and VOLUME 3: The … (Series D: BioMedicine & Immunology)

Sep 4, 2017 | Kindle eBook

by Larry H. Bernstein and Aviva Lev-Ari

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$115.00$ 115 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Perspectives on Nitric Oxide in Disease Mechanisms (Biomed e-Books Book 1)

Jun 20, 2013 | Kindle eBook

by Margaret Baker PhD and Tilda Barliya PhD

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$75.00$ 75 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

5 out of 5 stars 6

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Medical Scientific Discoveries for the 21st Century & Interviews with Scientific Leaders (Series E)

Dec 9, 2017 | Kindle eBook

by Larry H. Bernstein and Aviva Lev-Ari

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$75.00$ 75 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Etiologies of Cardiovascular Diseases: Epigenetics, Genetics and Genomics

Nov 28, 2015 | Kindle eBook

by Justin D. Pearlman MD ME PhD MA FACC and Stephen J. Williams PhD

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$75.00$ 75 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation: The Art of Scientific & Medical Curation

Nov 29, 2015 | Kindle eBook

by Larry H. Bernstein MD FCAP and Aviva Lev-Ari PhD RN

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$75.00$ 75 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Medical 3D BioPrinting – The Revolution in Medicine Technologies for Patient-centered Medicine: From R&D in Biologics to New Medical Devices (Series E: Patient-Centered Medicine Book 4)

Dec 30, 2017 | Kindle eBook

by Larry H. Bernstein and Irina Robu

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$75.00$ 75 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Metabolic Genomics & Pharmaceutics (BioMedicine – Metabolomics, Immunology, Infectious Diseases Book 1)

Jul 21, 2015 | Kindle eBook

by Larry H. Bernstein MD FCAP and Prabodah Kandala PhD

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$75.00$ 75 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

5 out of 5 stars 1

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Cancer Biology and Genomics for Disease Diagnosis (Series C: e-Books on Cancer & Oncology Book 1)

Aug 10, 2015 | Kindle eBook

by Larry H Bernstein MD FCAP and Prabodh Kumar Kandala PhD

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$75.00$ 75 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Genomics Orientations for Personalized Medicine (Frontiers in Genomics Research Book 1)

Nov 22, 2015 | Kindle eBook

by Sudipta Saha PhD and Ritu Saxena PhD

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$75.00$ 75 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Milestones in Physiology: Discoveries in Medicine, Genomics and Therapeutics (Series E: Patient-Centered Medicine Book 3)

Dec 26, 2015 | Kindle eBook

by Larry H. Bernstein MD FACP and Aviva Lev-Ari PhD RN

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$75.00$ 75 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Regenerative and Translational Medicine: The Therapeutic Promise for Cardiovascular Diseases

Dec 26, 2015 | Kindle eBook

by Justin D. Pearlman MD ME PhD MA FACC and Ritu Saxena PhD

$0.00

Subscribers read for free.

Read for Free

$75.00$ 75 00 to buyKindle Edition

Get it TODAY, Jan 29

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC

5        Style Setting: Instruction manuals for Journal, Articles, Books

As BioMed e-Series Editor–in-Chief, Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN was responsible for

·       All the documentation (Instruction manuals) on Style setting, and for

·       Training all team members

·       Journal Articles Format

·       Journal Comment Exchange Format

·       e-Books Production Process:

1.               Volume creation from Journal’s Article Archive,

2.               Format Translation from HTML to .mobi for Kindle devices,

3.               Proof reading process,

4.               Title release,

5.               Book electronic Upload to Amazon.com Cloud.

6.               Connection of all articles and e-Books to Social Media, Ping back generation by mentioning other related articles published in the Journal

 

Lastly, 6, below

6        Annual Workflow Management of Multiple eTOCs – Multi-year Book Publishing Scheduling Plan, 2013 – Present

 

Title Date of Publication Number of Pages
Perspectives on Nitric Oxide in Disease Mechanisms 6/21/2013 895
Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation 11/30/2015 11039 KB
Etiologies of Cardiovascular Diseases: Epigenetics, Genetics and Genomics 11/29/2015 12333 KB
Regenerative and Translational Medicine: The Therapeutics Promise for Cardiovascular Diseases 12/26/2015 11668 KB
Genomics Orientations for Personalized Medicine 11/23/2015 11724 KB
Cancer Biology & Genomics for Disease Diagnosis 8/11/2015 13744 KB
Cancer Therapies: Metabolic, Genomics, Interventional, Immunotherapy and Nanotechnology in Therapy Delivery 5/18/2017 5408 pages
Metabolic Genomics and Pharmaceutics 7/21/2015 13927 KB
The Immune System, Stress    Signaling, Infectious Diseases and Therapeutic Implications 9/4/2017 3747 pages
The VOICES of Patients, Hospitals CEOs, Health Care Providers, Caregivers and Families: Personal Experience with Critical Care and Invasive Medical Procedures 10/16/2017 826 pages
Medical Scientific Discoveries for the 21st Century & Interviews with Scientific Leaders 12/9/2017 2862 pages
Milestones in Physiology: Discoveries in Medicine, Genomics and Therapeutics 12/27/2015 11125 KB
Medical 3D BioPrinting – The Revolution in Medicine, Technologies for Patient-centered Medicine: From R&D in Biologics to New Medical Devices 12/30/2017 1005 pages
Pharmacological Agents in Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease

 

Work-in-Progress, Expected Publishing date in 2018 ???
Interventional Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery for Disease Diagnosis and Guidance of Treatment Work-in-Progress, Expected Publishing date in 2018

 

???

 

Read Full Post »

Novartis’ Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), FDA approved genetically engineered immune cells, would charge $475,000 per patient, will use Programs that Payers will pay only for Responding Patients

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

UPDATED on 9/1/2017:

This Pioneering $475,000 Cancer Drug Comes With A Money-Back Guarantee

Novartis defends the eye-popping price of its pioneering gene therapy with arguments about its $1 billion expenditure—and novel “value-based” pricing.

https://www.fastcompany.com/40461214/how-novartis-is-defending-the-record-475000-price-of-its-pioneering-gene-therapy-cancer-drug-car-t-kymriah

 

On 8/30/2017 we wrote:

FDA has approved the world’s first CAR-T therapy, Novartis for Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) and Gilead’s $12 billion buy of KitePharma, no approved drug and Canakinumab for Lung Cancer (may be?)

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/08/30/fda-has-approved-the-worlds-first-car-t-therapy-novartis-for-kymriah-tisagenlecleucel-and-gileads-12-billion-buy-of-kite-pharma-no-approved-drug-and-canakinumab-for-lung-cancer-may-be/

 

The Price for the Treatment was published on 8/31/2017, a Value-based Pricing Payment Model of a $475,000 per patient charge for the responding patients after ONE month of treatment. Novartis says it takes an average of 22 days to create the therapy, from the time a patient’s cells are removed to when they are infused back into the patient. Kymriah will initially be available at 20 U.S. hospitals within a month, Novartis says. Eventually, 32 total sites will offer the therapy. 

CAR-T gained national attention three years ago when Carl June, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, used to put a young girl’s acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Genetically altering the girl’s immune cells had made her deathly ill, but June had used a Roche drug, Actemra, to treat the side effects. She lived, and the results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Novartis bought the rights to the Penn treatment for just $20 million up front.

Pharma Buying the right to use from an Academic Institution is a known route to leap frog the R&D lengthy process of Drug discovery.

“I’ve told the team that resources are not an issue. Speed is the issue,” says Novartis’ Chief Executive Joseph Jimenez, told Forbes in a cover story about the work then.

The FDA calls this CAR-T therapy treatment, made by Novartis, the “first gene therapy” in the U.S. The therapy is designed to treat an often-lethal type of blood and bone marrow cancer that affects children and young adults. The FDA defines gene therapy as a medicine that “introduces genetic material into a person’s DNA to replace faulty or missing genetic material” to treat a disease or medical condition. This is the first such therapy to be available in the U.S., according to the FDA.

Two gene therapies for rare, inherited diseases have already been approved in Europe.

To further evaluate the long-term safety, Novartis is also required to conduct a post-marketing observational study involving patients treated with Kymriah.

The FDA granted Kymriah Priority Review and Breakthrough Therapy designations. The Kymriah application was reviewed using a coordinated, cross-agency approach. The clinical review was coordinated by the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, while CBER conducted all other aspects of review and made the final product approval determination.

The FDA granted approval of Kymriah to Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. The FDA granted the expanded approval of Actemra to Genentech Inc.

FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb in a statement.

“We’re entering a new frontier in medical innovation with the ability to reprogram a patient’s own cells to attack a deadly cancer,” 

“Kymriah is a first-of-its-kind treatment approach that fills an important unmet need for children and young adults with this serious disease,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). “Not only does Kymriah provide these patients with a new treatment option where very limited options existed, but a treatment option that has shown promising remission and survival rates in clinical trials.”

https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm574058.htm

The Protocol

A patient’s T cells are extracted and cryogenically frozen so that they can be transported to Novartis’s manufacturing center in New Jersey. There, the cells are genetically altered to have a new gene that codes for a protein—called a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR. This protein directs the T cells to target and kill leukemia cells with a specific antigen on their surface. The genetically modified cells are then infused back into the patient.

In a clinical trial of 63 children and young adults with a type of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 83 percent of patients that received the CAR-T therapy had their cancers go into remission within three months. At six months, 89 percent of patients who received the therapy were still living, and at 12 months, 79 percent had survived.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608771/the-fda-has-approved-the-first-gene-therapy-for-cancer/?utm_campaign=add_this&utm_source=email&utm_medium=post

CAR-T Therapies: Product/Molecules/MOA under Development:

  • Similar CAR-T treatments were being developed at other institutions including
  • Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,
  • Seattle Children’s Hospital, and
  • The National Cancer Institute.
  • The Memorial and Seattle work was spun off into a startup called Juno Therapeutics, which has fallen behind. Juno Therapeutics ended a CAR-T study earlier this year after patients died from cerebral edema, or swelling in the brain.
  • The NCI work became the basis for the product being developed by Kite Pharma. Kite Pharma, which is awaiting FDA approval for its CAR-T therapy to treat a form of blood cancer in adults, was this week bought out by Gilead in a deal worth $11.9 billion.

On Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 4th Annual Adoptive T Cell Therapy, Delivering CAR, TCR, and TIL from Research to Reality, August 29 – 30, 2017 | Sheraton Boston | Boston, MA

TUESDAY, AUGUST 29 – I covered in Real Time the talk on Juno Therapeutics: Building Better T Cell Therapies: The Power of Molecular Profiling by Mark Bonyhadi, Ph.D., Head, Research and Academic Affairs, Juno Therapeutics

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/08/29/live-829-chis-oncolytic-virus-immunotherapy-and-adoptive-cell-therapy-august-28-29-2017-sheraton-boston-hotel-boston-ma/

 

Precision Medicine is Costly and not a Rapid manufacturing process

All of the CAR-T products are expensive to make, and must be manufactured on an individual basis for each new patient from the patient’s own T-cells, a type of white blood cells, a process that takes weeks.

  • How quickly companies can speed up manufacturing.
  • Kymriah will be manufactured at a facility in Morris Plains, N.J.
  • CAR-T technology, which has so far been used only in patients with blood cancers that have not been cured by other treatments, can be used earlier in the disease or for solid tumors: Breast, Prostate, Melanomas.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2017/08/30/fda-approves-novartis-treatment-that-alters-patients-cells-to-fight-cancer/#2aecb25b4400

Prediction How Patients will Far Well – Researchers use a big-data approach to find links between different genes and patient survival.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608666/a-cancer-atlas-to-predict-how-patients-will-fare/?set=

A pathology atlas of the human cancer transcriptome

+ See all authors and affiliations

Science  18 Aug 2017:
Vol. 357, Issue 6352, eaan2507
DOI: 10.1126/science.aan2507

Modeling the cancer transcriptome

Recent initiatives such as The Cancer Genome Atlas have mapped the genome-wide effect of individual genes on tumor growth. By unraveling genomic alterations in tumors, molecular subtypes of cancers have been identified, which is improving patient diagnostics and treatment. Uhlen et al. developed a computer-based modeling approach to examine different cancer types in nearly 8000 patients. They provide an open-access resource for exploring how the expression of specific genes influences patient survival in 17 different types of cancer. More than 900,000 patient survival profiles are available, including for tumors of colon, prostate, lung, and breast origin. This interactive data set can also be used to generate personalized patient models to predict how metabolic changes can influence tumor growth.

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FDA has approved the world’s first CAR-T therapy, Novartis for Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) and Gilead’s $12 billion buy of Kite Pharma, no approved drug and Canakinumab for Lung Cancer (may be?)

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

 

UPDATED on 12/10/2019

For an ‘acquisitive’ Gilead, 2020 will be key test for CAR-T plans

Success for Kite, which O’Day made an independent unit, is critical for Gilead. Not only did the California biotech invest a large sum to buy the CAR-T specialist, it’s the most notable bet made on a future outside of drugs for HIV and hepatitis C.

Sentiment on Wall Street has begun to turn against the wisdom of Gilead’s choice, doubting CAR-T will live up to the promise envisioned by O’Day’s predecessors. One analyst went so far as to include the acquisition among the five most value-destroying biopharma deals of the past decade.

Commercially, sales of Yescarta have grown to $334 million through the first nine months of the year, up from $183 million during the same period last year. Still, marketing CAR-T has proved challenging, with hurdles in reimbursement and in-hospital administration particularly acute.

The coming year could prove consequential in shifting Kite’s trajectory higher.

Within the next few weeks, Gilead will ask regulators to approve its second CAR-T cell therapy, a variation of its currently cleared leukemia and lymphoma treatment Yescarta that’s manufactured differently.

new site in Europe coming online next year could substantially cut times down for Yescarta delivery there, Shaw said. (Globally, Novartis appears better positioned, with sites in Switzerland and France as well as partnerships in China, Japan and Australia.)

Automation of what’s now a mostly manual process will play an important role in CAR-T’s future too, according to Shaw.

“If we get our autologous cell therapy automated very well, you could imagine one day it could be at point of care,” she said. “We don’t want to be disrupted by someone else doing that.”

Disruption could also come in the form of allogeneic cell therapies, which are constructed using donor T cells rather than autologous treatments that use a patient’s own. Numerous clinical hurdles have made that approach more difficult but companies like Allogene — founded by former Kite executives — are moving ahead.

SOURCE

https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/gilead-kite-car-t-christi-shaw-dealmaking/568767/

 

UPDATED on 5/3/2019

Gilead Sciences tapped new CEO Daniel O’Day in part because of his cancer expertise. But he’s not planning to lead the company’s oncology ramp-up alone.

The Roche veteran intends to bring on a CEO for Gilead’s Kite unit, responsible for key CAR-T drug Yescarta. The new chief will report to O’Day and operate Kite as a separate business unit, JPMorgan analyst Cory Kasimov wrote in a Thursday note to clients.

RELATED: Gilead, looking for cancer sales, swipes Roche pharma chief Daniel O’Day for CEO post

Gilead acquired Kite in 2017 for $12 billion as its hepatitis C revenues, once its bread and butter, crashed. But so far, both Yescarta and Novartis’ rival CAR-T player, Kymriah, have struggled, thanks to a mix of reimbursement and manufacturing challenges.

Kite underperformed expectations once again in the first quarter, with Yescarta’s $96 million in sales for the period checking in below Wall Street consensus of $105 million.

O’Day doesn’t expect to see that trend continue, though. On Gilead’s earnings conference call, he “proclaimed his confidence in cell therapy, noting that it was a critical element of the company’s long term strategy,” Kasimov wrote.

Getting Gilead’s commercial business in order is just one of O’Days three main priorities as he settles into the CEO role, though. After taking the reins March 1, he decided to zero in on strengthening Gilead’s pipeline, in part through M&A. And he’ll also be making organizational tweaks to “ensure the right people are in the right place,” as Kasimov put it.

Gilead is “continuing to scan the entirety” of the M&A landscape and “acknowledges they will continue to ‘look at late stage pipeline,’” while keeping an eye on the company’s areas of expertise—oncology, HIV and hepatitis B and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee wrote to his own clients. And the Big Biotech will be “accelerating internal” candidates in addition to adding bolt-on buys.

RELATED: Gilead executives predict patience—and some deal scouting—from new CEO Daniel O’Day

Unsurprisingly, analysts trained their attention on the call to O’Day’s strategy comments, and “there were literally minimal to no questions about financials,” Yee noted. But that doesn’t mean Gilead turned in a bad quarter. On the contrary, the first quarter was “fairly clean,” he wrote, with revenues of $5.28 billion meeting expectations and earnings per share of $1.76 topping forecasts by 15 cents.

New HIV hotshot Biktarvy stole the show on the revenue side, blowing the $648 million consensus prediction out of the water with $793 million in quarterly sales.

In the quarter, “about 80% of Biktarvy revenue came from switches with 25% from dolutegravir-containing regimens in the U.S.,” Kasimov wrote, referencing key combinations from Gilead’s HIV archrival, GlaxoSmithKline.

SOURCE

 

UPDATED on 9/7/2017

Here’s the inside account of Gilead’s 11-week sprint to its $12B Kite buyout – ENDPOINTS NEWS

UPDATED on 8/31/2017

Gilead-Kite: A New Transformative Deal For Biotech, AUG 30, 2017

Gilead has made a big bet on new technology in Kite’s immunotherapy platforms and has reduced the number of credible large players in the space.

With a reputation for intense diligence and dynamism in its business development efforts, Gilead’s management team will only bolster the immunotherapy field as it prepares to face off with Novartis, its immediate competitor, and enters squarely in the province of Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb, two of the leaders in immuno-oncology.

Gilead has reinvented the transformative transaction for the sector.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenbrozak/2017/08/30/gilead-kite-a-new-transformative-deal-and-maybe-the-new-future-of-healthcare-deals/#fc64fca65d49

 

I attended this week the Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s 4th Annual

Adoptive T Cell Therapy

Delivering CAR, TCR, and TIL from Research to Reality
August 29 – 30, 2017 | Sheraton Boston | Boston, MA

 

The following talks on 8/29/2017 presented the frontier of CAR-T Therapies and Technologies from lab to bed side:

  • Building Better T Cell Therapies: The Power of Molecular Profiling

Mark Bonyhadi, Ph.D., Head, Research and Academic Affairs, Juno Therapeutics

  • Tricked-Out Cars, the Next Generation of CAR T Cells

Richard Morgan, Ph.D., Vice President, Immunotherapy, Bluebird Bio

  • The Generation of Lentiviral Vector-Modified CAR-T Cells Using an Automated Process

Boro Dropulic, Ph.D., General Manager and CSO, Lentigen Technology, Inc.

I covered this event in Real Time for the Press

LIVE – 8/29 – CHI’s Oncolytic Virus Immunotherapy and ADOPTIVE CELL THERAPY, August 28-29, 2017 Sheraton Boston Hotel | Boston, MA

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2017/08/29/live-829-chis-oncolytic-virus-immunotherapy-and-adoptive-cell-therapy-august-28-29-2017-sheraton-boston-hotel-boston-ma/

 

One year ago we published the following:

What does this mean for Immunotherapy? FDA put a temporary hold on Juno’s JCAR015, Three Death of Celebral Edema in CAR-T Clinical Trial and Kite Pharma announced Phase II portion of its CAR-T ZUMA-1 trial

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2016/07/09/what-does-this-mean-for-immunotherapy-fda-put-a-temporary-hold-on-jcar015-three-death-of-celebral-edema-in-car-t-clinical-trial-and-kite-pharma-announced-phase-ii-portion-of-its-car-t-zuma-1-trial/

 

SOURCE

Is Canakinumab the Next Viagra?

In this Revolution and Revelation, Milton Packer explains how safety data can sometimes trump a primary endpoint

by Milton PackerAugust 30, 2017

https://www.medpagetoday.com/Blogs/RevolutionandRevelation/67605

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