Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Lung Cancer Combination Drug Trial Reports 'Encouraging' Results
Stat: Arcus’ Anti-TIGIT Immunotherapy Shows ‘Encouraging' Tumor Response
Arcus Biosciences said Wednesday that a two-drug combination that includes an anti-TIGIT antibody delivered “encouraging clinical activity” following a preliminary look at a clinical trial of patients with lung cancer. Beyond a verbal description of the interim study results, however, the Hayward, Calif.-based biotech isn’t saying much about its closely tracked TIGIT immunotherapy, called domvanalimab. Gilead Sciences has an option to license domvanalimab, but is deferring a decision until later this year, Arcus said Wednesday. (Feuerstein, 6/23)
In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —
Stat: What The Cancer Research Community Can Learn From The Covid Response
The Covid-19 pandemic’s rapid spread across the world demanded a quick, collaborative response. Now, experts are asking how they can take the lessons from combating Covid-19 and apply them to diseases like cancer. “As we look at Covid and the lessons we’re learning in the last year-and-a-half, it certainly is a lesson of successes and failures,” said John Oyler, CEO of BeiGene, in an event at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit this week. “I strongly believe in oncology that we can and will learn from this set of experiences.” (Lin, 6/23)
Stat: 5 Companies Harnessing AI For Drug Discovery To Watch
A decade ago, the business of drug discovery changed forever. Machine learning researchers were beginning to crack open the potential of deep neural networks — the powerful technology at work when a computer recognizes what’s in a photo. At the same time, the field of single cell genomics was taking off, generating detailed data at a scale that could only be tackled by tech. Today, those techniques have matured, and their combined forces are beginning to pay off for AI-driven drug discovery companies — if not yet for the patients clamoring for new medicines. (Palmer, 6/24)
Stat: Peter Bach, Industry Critic, Joins Company Aiming To Make Liquid Biopsies
Peter Bach, well-known as a drug pricing researcher and pharma industry gadfly, is leaving academia for an executive role at a biotech firm that aims to develop a blood test that can detect lung cancer, the company announced Wednesday. Bach, 56, the director of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, will become the chief medical officer of Delfi Diagnostics, a Baltimore startup that raised $100 million from a syndicate of investors in January to develop a new form of a technology, known as liquid biopsy, that can detect fragments of cancer DNA in the bloodstream. (Herper, 6/23)
