BUSINESS INSIGHTS, PHARMA TECH
West Pharmaceutical Services | February 13, 2023
West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., a leading global innovative injectable drug administration solutions provider, recently announced the expansion of its remarkable collaboration with Corning Incorporated, which now includes exclusive distribution rights for Corning Valor® Glass vials as well as the launch of its first product, West Ready Pack™ with Corning Valor® RTU Vials employing SG EZ-fill® technology.
The West Ready Pack™ with Corning Valor® RTU Vials integrates West's highest quality NovaPure® stoppers, Flip-Off® CCS (Certified, Clean, Sterilized) seals and Corning's best-in-class Valor® RTU Vials with SG EZ-fill® technology into a complete containment solution to assist in the introduction of parenteral drugs and diagnostics to the market.
West announced its agreement with Corning in January 2022, which includes a multimillion-dollar investment to develop Corning's Valor® Glass technology to improve patient safety and increase access to life-saving therapies. This strategic alliance provides premier elastomer-glass system solutions for injectable drug storage and delivery. In addition, West and Corning intend to collaborate to develop the next generation of integrated packaging and delivery system solutions.
Valor® RTU Vials with SG EZ-fill® technology improve medication storage and distribution, enable more reliable access to important medicines for public health, and maximize production efficiency. This pharmaceutical glass was explicitly created to handle the problems of modern industrial procedures.
The Ready Pack™ mixture of NovaPure® stoppers, Flip-Off® CCS seals, and Valor® RTU Vials with SG EZ-fill® technology offers drug developers the following advantages
Proven Container Closure Integrity (CCI), which includes the ability to sustain cold storage CCI when cooled to and kept at -80 degrees Celsius;
Ready-to-use sterile format that may be introduced immediately into filling operations, avoiding the requirement for component preparation;
Premium components with the most stringent particle requirements available from West; and
Availability in volumes appropriate for small-scale filling operations with continuity to quantity alternatives for large-scale commercial operations.
About West Pharmaceutical Services
Founded in 1923, West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. is a leading high-quality, innovative injectable solutions and services provider. It is a trusted partner to both established and emergent drug producers and contributes to the safe, effective containment and delivery of life-enhancing and life-saving medications to patients. West supports its clients by supplying over 45 billion components and devices each year, with a team of approximately 10000 members spread across 50 facilities globally. Headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania, the company has been operating for over a century and achieved $2.83 billion in net sales in the fiscal year 2021.
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BUSINESS INSIGHTS, PHARMA TECH
Innate Pharma | January 17, 2023
On January 16, 2023, Innate Pharma SA announced the publication of preclinical findings demonstrating the control of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells by a trifunctional NKp46-CD16a-NK cell engager (NKCE) targeting CD123 in the scientific journal Nature Biotechnology. Innate and Sanofi conducted the experiments, which were published in Nature Biotechnology on January 12, 2023.
This study demonstrates that CD64 expression on AML blasts imparts resistance to anti-CD123 antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC) and that redirecting NK cells against cancer targets by binding to CD16a and NKp46 circumvents this resistance. Moreover, through their binding to NKp46, CD123-NKCE primarily target NK cells and have substantial antitumor activity against primary AML blasts; they stimulate NK cell activation and cytokine secretion exclusively in AML cells' presence.
In vivo, its antitumor activity observed in a mouse tumor model surpasses that of the anti-CD123 antibody used as the comparator. Furthermore, in vitro in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and in vivo in nonhuman primates, the efficacy of CD123-NKCE was associated with the induction of low pro-inflammatory cytokine release and the absence of toxicity.
These results support CD123-NKCE clinical development. IPH6101/SAR'579 (SAR443579), the first NKp46/CD16-based CD123-targeted ANKETTM NK cell engager, is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial by Sanofi in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML), B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (HR-MDS).
About Innate Pharma
Headquartered in Marseille (France), Innate Pharma SA is a global, clinical-stage oncology-focused biotech firm dedicated to enhancing patient treatment and clinical outcomes using therapeutic antibodies that employ the immune system to combat cancer. Its extensive antibody pipeline has numerous potentially first-in-class clinical and preclinical candidates for cancers with a high unmet medical need. In addition, Innate has been a pioneer in the study of natural killer cell (NK cell) biology and developed its expertise in tumor antigens, tumor microenvironment, and antibody engineering. This innovative strategy has resulted in a varied proprietary portfolio and substantial alliances with biopharmaceutical industry leaders, including Sanofi, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk A/S, and a multi-product collaboration with AstraZeneca.
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BUSINESS INSIGHTS, PHARMA TECH
XtalPi Inc. | December 29, 2022
One of the pioneering pharmaceutical technology companies - XtalPi, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, has recently announced a strategic collaboration with Singapore's national platform for drug discovery and development, the Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC), which is hosted by the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research of Singapore (A*STAR). The goal of this partnership is to find novel treatment candidates for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
“According to Research and Markets, the size of the global market for NSCLC treatments will surpass USD 20 billion by 2027”
Lung cancer is the second-most prevalent cancer worldwide and the leading cause of cancer-related mortality. NSCLC accounts for more than 80% of all lung cancer occurrences, while its incidence continues to rise worldwide. Despite growing interest and investment in drug research, there is a substantial unmet demand for effective targeted therapeutic alternatives for NSCLC patients to improve outcomes.
In this partnership, EDDC and XtalPi will work together to find promising candidates against an NSCLC target chosen by EDDC. XtalPi will use its AI technology, automation platform, and expert domain knowledge. It will also use quantum physics and an AI-driven platform to create and test millions of molecules for the De-novo drug design. Iterations will be used in its robotics-powered synthesis and testing lab to confirm and improve the predicted top-performing molecules with desirable drug properties. EDDC will give helpful information and data about the new NSCLC target, which will speed up the process of finding new drugs and carry the program forward.
XtalPi said in a statement that it is delighted to work with EDDC. It intends to help people all over the world by using AI and automation to improve the speed, size, variety, and success rate of drug research and development. In line with this, EDDC stated that it is excited to collaborate with XtalPi to translate science and research into practical and targeted cancer therapies. Furthermore, EDDC is confident that this collaboration will accelerate the development of much-needed targeted therapies for NSCLC patients due to XtalPi's experience in AI and automation technologies.
About XtalPi
XtalPi is a quantum physics-based, AI-powered drug R&D firm aiming to improve the speed, scale, novelty, and success rate of drug discovery. To meet the needs of its clients and partners, the company has offices in China and the United States. Frost & Sullivan cites the company as one of the world's first AI-powered drug R&D companies, with an iterative feedback loop between dry and wet lab capabilities.
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