PHARMACY MARKET
Thermo Fisher Scientific | September 03, 2021
Thermo Fisher Scientific's clinical sequencing business and AstraZeneca today announced they will co-develop next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based companion diagnostics (CDx) to support AstraZeneca's expanding portfolio of targeted therapies. The companies will collaborate under a multiyear, global agreement.
"As the pipeline of targeted therapies expands, the availability of diagnostic tools that can interrogate multiple biomarkers simultaneously will ensure patients can be matched with the right therapies more rapidly – this is the promise of precision medicine," said Garret Hampton, president of clinical next-generation sequencing and oncology at Thermo Fisher Scientific. "Introduction of diagnostic tools early in the process of drug development can further facilitate the success of companion diagnostic development – and that's what we're doing with AstraZeneca."
NGS-based companion diagnostics are increasingly used to match patients with new therapies for cancer and other diseases. More than 90 percent of AstraZeneca's clinical pipeline, across all main areas from oncology, cardiovascular and renal to metabolic and respiratory disease, are targeted precision medicine therapies.
"Using the latest diagnostic science allows us to match the best treatment to the patient," said Ruth March, senior vice president, precision medicine and biosamples, AstraZeneca. "This collaboration with Thermo Fisher offers the technology, expertise and ability to decentralize CDx tests to local healthcare providers across our global markets, which will help us identify more patients around the world who may benefit from treatments and effective patient care."
Thermo Fisher currently offers the only globally distributable NGS CDx solution approved and reimbursed by government and commercial insurers in more than 15 countries, including the U.S., multiple European nations, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East, and covering more than 550 million lives globally.
To expand global access to a growing list of precision medicine therapies, in 2019 Thermo Fisher introduced the Ion Torrent Genexus System*, the first fully-integrated NGS platform featuring an automated specimen-to-report workflow that economically delivers results in a single day. The company's complete NGS workflow, powered by Ion AmpliSeq technology, includes multiple solutions for solid tumor biomarkers and liquid biopsy testing.
About Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $30 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 80,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon.
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RESEARCH
Gilead | November 21, 2020
Gilead Sciences’ Veklury, better known as remdesivir, is so far the only COVID-19 therapy officially approved by the FDA, but the World Health Organization has some other ideas about the drug’s worth.
At clear odds with the FDA’s approval, the WHO has for now recommended against the use of remdesivir in any hospitalized patients—regardless of disease severity—after an expert panel said it had found no evidence that remdesivir has any meaningful effect on saving lives and other important outcomes for patients, the international body said Thursday.
A “disappointed” Gilead immediately fought back. It pointed to remdesivir’s inclusion in several other organizations’ guidelines based on data from a phase 3 trial by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which showed the drug’s use could lead to faster recovery.
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PHARMA TECH
Ranok Therapeutics | November 30, 2021
Ranok Therapeutics Co. Ltd., an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on developing breakthrough therapies for cancer and other serious diseases, announced an agreement with Pfizer Inc. to apply and evaluate Ranok’s CHAMP™ platform technology on an undisclosed cancer target. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Ranok has developed a proprietary and innovative targeted protein degradation (TPD) platform technology, CHAMP™ (Chaperone-mediated Protein Degradation), which leverages Ranok’s founders’ expertise in protein homeostasis to take advantage of the cellular chaperone network, potentially improving drug safety and efficacy due to selective targeting of disease tissues.
“We are very pleased to work with Pfizer to explore the application of CHAMP™ to an emerging cancer drug target, This represents our first pharmaceutical company research relationship and is an important step forward in establishing CHAMP™ as a preferred technology in the rapidly-growing field of targeted protein degradation. We look forward to uncovering new benefits of CHAMP™ through this research.”
Kevin P. Foley, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Ranok Therapeutics
This evaluation agreement builds upon Ranok’s recent momentum, including its $40 million Series B financing in August 2021.
About Ranok Therapeutics
Ranok is a privately held, emerging biopharmaceutical company that is pioneering its proprietary CHAMP™ platform technology, an innovative approach to targeted protein degradation (TPD) for the discovery and development of novel therapeutics. Ranok was founded by a leadership team composed of industry veterans from both Chinese and American biotech and pharmaceutical companies and is based in two of the world’s leading centers of innovation and medical research: Hangzhou China and Greater Boston, Massachusetts. By bringing together cutting-edge medical research from both China and the United States, Ranok’s goal is to create transformative medicines to benefit patients suffering from cancer and other serious diseases around the world. For more information, please visit the company website at www.ranoktherapeutics.com or follow us at LinkedIn and on Twitter @RanokTx.
About Ranok’s CHAMP™ platform
Chaperone-mediated Protein Degradation/Degrader technology is based on our founders’ extensive backgrounds in protein homeostasis research. This technology takes advantage of the cellular chaperone network, distinguishing it from other targeted protein degradation (TPD) approaches. CHAMP™ has a number of unique advantages, including improved safety due to the selective targeting of tumors. Our proprietary R&D engine combines deep biological insight and chemistry expertise to iteratively discover and test new leads, rapidly identifying and advancing optimal development candidates for a variety of important disease targets.
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