Adaptimmune has received fractional responses in three out of the first four round cell/ myxoid liposarcoma (MRCLS) patients treated with its T cells. Early data has elevated hopes the GSK-partnered drug will be effective against multiple types of solid tumor, boosting Adaptimmune shares bv nearly 20%.
T-cells derived from tumor showed promising results against ovarian cancer
Biotechnologically engineered T-cell treatments based on immune cells taken from a patient’s blood itself have seen positive results in blood cancers, but are comparatively harder to deploy against solid tumors. Main problem is that most of the tumors don’t have enough mutations that would alert the immune system that the cancer is present. However, extracting T-cells directly from tumors, culturing them invitro and then putting them back into the patient could be an effective alternative.
Ionis Pharma finds new commercialization partner after GSK’s rejection
Ditched by GSK last year, Ionis Pharma has found a new partner for commercializing Inotersen. New partner is Akcea Therapeutics, a subsidiary of Ionis Pharma, spun out to develop and commercialize 4 antisense drugs. Ionis expects that the drug will be able to bag U.S. and EU approvals by midyear for the treatment of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (hATTR).
