Indubidibly there is a connection with the proposed Cytokine Cycle and its Pathophysiologic Consequence and what Pat is funding here. I will repost it soon
Billionaire entrepreneur Patrick
Soon-Shiong's NantCell raised $57.3 million in equity to fund its work on
treatments that use the immune system to fight cancer, becoming one of the most
well-funded companies in its founder's constellation of biotech endeavors.
The round, which sold shares to 125 investors,
follows a $100 million fundraise disclosed in September and a $75 million
equity sale over the summer. Like most of Soon-Shiong's many biotech ventures,
NantCell has provided little detail on its specific goals, and the company
didn't respond to a request for comment Monday.
Launched early last year, NantCell is an arm
of Soon-Shiong's NantWorks umbrella that is developing immuno-oncology
therapies. The company's first move was paying an undisclosed sum for the
rights to Amgen's ($AMGN) ganitumab, a
once-failed antibody that NantCell believes can be repurposed against cancer.
In March, the company widened its pipeline by trading $110 million in cash and
equity for the rights to some immunotherapies from Sorrento Therapeutics ($SRNE), a frequent Soon-Shiong collaborator.
And it has remained quiet ever since.
NantCell, one of about a dozen under the
NantWorks name, does business alongside NantiBody, a joint venture with
Sorrento; NantPharma, at work on a next-generation version of Celgene's ($CELG) Abraxane; NantBioScience, developing
nanoparticle cancer treatments; NantKwest ($NK), an immuno-oncology company that raised
more than $200 million in a July IPO; and NantHealth, a tech firm offering what
Soon-Shiong calls "the Google of genome mapping."
JAK Inhibition
JAK Inhibition
Jakafi has failed to help patients in a late-stage study for pancreatic cancer, and Incyte feels that it now has all the data it needs to prove that a JAK1 inhibitor is the wrong way to go in solid tumors.
Just ahead of its annual numbers release, Incyte reported today that it is slamming the brakes on a range of studies for Jakafi as well as the experimental INCB39110, another JAK1. Already halted on one colon cancer trial failure, Incyte is ending the Phase III pancreatic cancer study, a separate midstage trial in colorectal cancer, a Phase II for breast and lung cancers and a dose-ranging trial for INCB39110 in pancreatic cancer.
Shares of Wilmington, DE-based Incyte ($INCY) plunged 23% on the news of the setback.
Incyte, though, still believes that the drug's impact on the tumor microenvironment, a key target in oncology, is worth studying in combination studies using Merck's checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda, as well as its in-house IDO1 inhibitor and PI3k drug. INCB39110 plus osimertinib, AstraZeneca's next-generation EGFR inhibitor, will also stay in the pipeline.
Back in the summer of 2013, evidence of some success using Jakafi against pancreatic cancer spurred a 33% spike in the biotech's share price, encouraging CEO Hervé Hoppenot to tell reporters some months later that the company's shares were undervalued. At the time the company's shares had risen to about $64 a share. The company's shares were on their way to $130 in the fall of 2015. Today, the price is just north of $57 as a bear market mauls industry shares.
Jakafi is approved to treat myelofibrosis, and Incyte expects the drug will reap more than $800 million in revenue from the treatment this year.
"The hypothesis to evaluate the therapeutic utility of JAK inhibition in patients with solid tumors and high levels of systemic inflammation was initially supported by a subgroup analysis of the randomized, double-blind Phase 2 RECAP study, which suggested a survival benefit in patients with high levels of CRP. As a result, we and the broader scientific community believed further study in pancreatic cancer and other solid tumors with evidence of systemic inflammation was warranted. Unfortunately, the larger studies did not confirm this hypothesis," said Rich Levy, Incyte's chief drug development officer.
