Dendreon Corp.

FREMONT, Calif., July 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Attovia Therapeutics today announced the election of Mitchell H. Gold, M.D., and Angie You, Ph.D., as independent members of its Board of Directors. Drs. Gold and You are seasoned biotech executives and experienced board members who bring decades of industry leadership experience, including early- and late-stage therapeutic development and commercialization. “I am delighted to welcome Mitch and Angie to the team. They are industry leaders with a proven track record of success in building both public and private biopharma companies. As Attovia looks toward our next stage of growth and drives our mission of bringing forward first-in-class and best-in-class therapies against immune-mediated disease, their expertise will be invaluable in supporting the business and strategic priorities of the company,” said Tao Fu, Chief Executive Officer of Attovia Therapeutics. Dr. Gold was chairman, CEO, and founder of Alpine Immune Sciences, a publicly traded biotech company (Nasdaq: ALPN) dedicated to developing innovative treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, that was acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals in May of 2024 for $4.9 billion. Previously, he was a board member and former president and CEO of Dendreon Corporation, which under his leadership brought the therapeutic cancer vaccine Provenge® through late-stage development and regulatory approval in 2010 as the world’s first FDA-approved active cellular cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Gold also serves as the managing partner of Alpine BioVentures, a healthcare focused investment fund. Dr. Gold graduated from the University of Wisconsin and Rush University Medical School in Chicago, and was a urology resident at the University of Washington. Dr. You is currently the CEO of Architect Therapeutics and serves on the Board of Directors of ORIC Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ORIC). Prior to Architect, Dr. You served as CEO of Amunix Pharmaceuticals, where she orchestrated the acquisition of the company by Sanofi for over $1.2 billion. Prior to joining Amunix, Dr. You served as Chief Business & Strategy Officer and Head of Commercial at Sierra Oncology from 2014 to 2018, where she helped the company through a successful initial public offering and led the company’s business and commercial efforts. Prior to Sierra Oncology, Dr. You served as Chief Business Officer of Aragon Pharmaceuticals from 2010 through its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in 2013. In previous roles, Dr. You served as Chief Business Officer at Synosia Therapeutics and Ren Pharmaceuticals, worked on new company formation at Venrock Ventures, and served on the Board of Directors of RayzeBio prior to its acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb. Dr. You earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard University and a B.A. in chemistry from Harvard College. “I’m excited to join the Attovia Board as the company prepares for first-in-human clinical trials for its lead program and expands its portfolio of multi-specific therapeutics against immune-mediated disease,” said Dr. Gold. “The Company has made significant progress since its inception and I look forward to supporting its goal of building an I&I leader with innovative medicines.” Dr. You added, “The potential of ATTOBODIES to offer first-in-class and best-in-class therapeutics through their ‘IgG-alternative’ properties positions Attovia to drive real change in patients’ lives. The Company has built a strong team, is well capitalized, and is poised for transformational growth, including opportunities to leverage partnerships to realize the potential of its technology.” About Attovia Attovia is creating a pipeline of biotherapeutics with an initial focus on immune-mediated diseases. The company leverages ATTOBODY™, a novel biologics platform, to generate small format biparatopic binders that offer stronger efficacy and a broader universe of druggable epitopes compared to traditional approaches. Learn more at attovia.com. About ATTOBODY™ ATTOBODIES are small format biparatopic biologics that utilize a proprietary spatial positioning technology to unlock a new dimension of target engagement. The biparatopic binding mode of ATTOBODIES translates to picomolar affinity with glue-like off-rates, which drives strong potency in biologic activity, and functionalizes biologically inactive epitopes. ATTOBODIES are modular, can be engineered into multispecifics, and offer tunable half-life from hours to weeks. The high-throughput, evolution-based ATTOBODY discovery platform significantly accelerates development and offers a high degree of diversity in lead candidates, expanding target biology coverage and derisking development. Press Contact Attovia Therapeutics: info@attovia.com

Pictured: A collage of vaccines and cancer cells/Taylor Tieden for BioSpace Oncology remains the major focus area in R&D for large pharma companies as global spending in the area continues to grow. Immunotherapies, in particular, have quickly become some of the best-selling products on the market. Seeking ever more efficacious treatments, companies are now eyeing cancer vaccines, which experts say could be more powerful than other immunotherapies and may even provide a preventative measure against certain malignancies. The first therapeutic cancer vaccine was approved in 2010, and Dendreon’s Provenge is still the only therapy of this type on the market. But interest in the space is growing as certain candidates enter late-stage clinical trials. “It’s definitely a competitive area,” said Scot Ebbinghaus, vice president of clinical research at Merck, which is developing mRNA-4157/V940 in partnership with Moderna. “But competition is a good thing for patients. It makes us work harder and smarter. We look carefully at what our competitors are doing and keep this mind when we are developing our plans.” Proving the Concept of Cancer Vaccines Ebbinghaus explained that both cancer vaccines and immunotherapies, such as Merck’s blockbuster Keytruda (pembrolizumab), act on the T cells, which fight cancer. “The way PD-1 inhibitors work is they take the brakes off of those cells. The vaccines work by presenting tumor-specific antigens to the immune system, which activates even more anti-tumor T cells, potentially allowing pembrolizumab to have a stronger effect,” he told BioSpace. Merck and Moderna’s vaccine is one of the most advanced candidates in development. mRNA-4157/V940 is currently being explored as a combination treatment with Keytruda, with Phase III trials underway in high-risk melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In Phase IIb trials for melanoma, the combination treatment was able to reduce the risk of recurrence or death by 49% compared to Keytruda alone. “What we have seen so far suggests that these drugs could be really useful in patients who have had cancer surgery and preventing recurrence,” Ebbinghaus said. “This is a very large population of patients with an unmet need to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence.” Another potential advantage of this therapeutic approach, based on the data the partners have seen so far, is that the safety pro similar to that of standard vaccines, Ebbinghaus added. This means pain at the injection site or mild fever, which he said is preferable to the adverse events associated with chemotherapy. These milder adverse events could also allow the vaccines to be delivered in situations where a patient’s health does not allow for exposure to harsher treatments, he noted. Some vaccine candidates in mid- to late-stage development, such as an mRNA product being pursued by BioNTech and Roche/Genentech, are being tested in combination with chemotherapy. Now in Phase II trials, the mRNA vaccine is administered along with Roche’s checkpoint inhibitor Tecentriq and chemo against pancreatic cancer. Another company developing a portfolio of cancer vaccines is CureVac, which announced in April that it would collaborate with MD Anderson on early-stage research. A CureVac spokesperson told BioSpace over email that the company is developing two approaches: an “off-the-shelf” platform tailored to patients with specific cancer types, and a fully personalized approach that would be based on a patient’s individual tumor genomic profile. The MD Anderson partnership is based on the first method and the tumor antigens shared across different cancer indications. The collaboration will use whole genome sequencing in combination with short- and long-read RNA sequencing to identify promising antigens, the spokesperson said, adding that the aim is to “go beyond the current state-of-the-art antigen space.” Preventive Therapy Along with the aforementioned therapeutic vaccines, research is also ongoing into developing preventive vaccines. The former are designed to treat an existing cancer, while the latter aim to help the immune system recognize and destroy cancer cells before they can gain a foothold in the body. Cancer Research UK (CRUK) recently announced it would provide funding to researchers at the University of Oxford, the Francis Crick Institute and University College London to develop a preventive lung cancer vaccine. The research could lead to the first vaccine for people at high risk of developing the disease, such as current or previous smokers aged 55–74. The vaccine, known as LungVax, is based on the same technology that was employed in AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. Hattie Brooks, a science engagement manager at CRUK, explained how the vaccine could potentially work. “The vector has been modified to express a protein, known as a neoantigen, that appears in lung cancer cells as they first become cancerous,” Brooks told BioSpace. “LungVax will train the body that the neoantigen is a danger and that this protein is a red flag for cancer. This allows the immune system to recognize the neoantigen as a threat and destroy the cells before the cancer has had time to develop.” Unlike some therapeutic vaccines, the preventive vaccine could be used alone in those individuals with the highest risk of developing cancer, potentially preventing the disease from occurring and negating the need for treatment. If it proves to be promising, LungVax will be moved into clinical trials. In the U.K. alone, there are 48,500 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed every year. While preventive vaccines are still early-stage, excitement around cancer vaccines more broadly continues to grow as therapeutic vaccines move through mid- and late-stage clinical development. It will not be long before the potential of this approach is either realized or dealt a blow. For Merck’s part, Ebbinghaus said the company has seen enough promise in the data from mRNA-4157/V940 that it is already in discussion with Moderna for further clinical programs looking ahead to 2025 and beyond. Ben Hargreaves is a freelance science journalist based in Tosse, France. Reach him on LinkedIn.

On the heels of early, but promising, cancer vaccine data released at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting, Corner Therapeutics on Thursday  detailed how its two technology platforms can supercharge the modality. The biotech also announced a $54-million series A that will help put its first vaccine to the clinical test next year. In addition to the financing, which was led by Ziff Capital Partners and saw participation from Cockrell Interests, Tanis Ventures, and Sandia Holdings, Corner also has grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to apply its technology to infectious diseases, including HIV, influenza and COVID-19.The company’s tech is designed to elicit a strong, long-lasting immune response by activating dendritic cells – the so-called “apex regulators” of the immune system because they are the only cell type that can stimulate new T cell responses. While the idea of dendritic cell-associated cancer vaccines is not new, Corner has come a long way from the earliest iteration at Dendreon Therapeutics and the long and messy history of its Provenge (sipuleucel-T). The FDA approved the immunotherapy in 2010 to treat prostate cancer, but at the time it was seen as an expensive and difficult-to-use treatment – with questionable efficacy – and failed to be a commercial success, leading to a bankruptcy declaration from Dendreon in 2014. The company has since managed to turn its business around and began earning a profit in 2018. For more, see ViewPoints: Now officially walking, Dendreon sets its sights on running. Powering up dendritic cellsThere are two major differences between Dendreon and Corner’s vaccine work, CEO  Steven Altschuler told FirstWord. He previously was CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia from 2000 to 2015 and also co-founded Spark Therapeutics, serving as chair until Roche acquired the gene therapy company for $4.3 billion in 2019.First, the biotech’s products will be in vivo, while Provenge is an ex vivo therapy that sources dendritic cells from a patient and exposes them to antigens before readministration. And second, Corner’s first platform is intended to promote a heightened state in dendritic cells – not just activated, but “hyper”activated. Dendritic hyperactivation was first discovered more than eight years ago by scientific co-founder Jonathan Kagan, a professor of paediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He found that when dendritic cells are in this state – triggered when the body sends both “infection” and “tissue damage” signals – stronger CD8+ T cell responses are generated, thanks to a pair of cellular processes that don’t occur during normal activation.Within dendritic cells, inflammasomes form and secrete IL-1β, a cytokine known to generate new, and reactivate existing, memory T cells. Additionally, a mass migration of dendritic cells to the lymph nodes – the primary T cell meet-up zone – is triggered. “These extra stimuli that we can apply makes a world of difference in terms of generating cellular immunity,” Altschuler said.A protein antigen-based vaccine developed with Corner’s hyperactivation platform will comprise three components: a proprietary oxidised lipid to send the “damage” signal, a TLR7/8 agonist to activate the “infection” signal, and the disease antigens. According to Altschuler, the modality is antigen-agnostic and can use neoantigens sourced from a cancer patient to create a personalised treatment, or incorporate a viral antigen for an off-the-shelf infectious disease vaccine. A STINGing immune boostIn tandem, Corner is developing a catalytic adjuvant technology intended to boost the power of mRNA-based vaccines by activating a well-known immune pathway: STING.While STING agonists have struggled to show efficacy in clinical cancer trials, Altschuler said Corner’s tactic causes continuous pathway activation.The company has developed an mRNA-encoded enzyme that reacts with naturally occurring cellular DNA to catalyse the formation of cGAMP, which is a precursor of the STING pathway.“What we have found is that this mechanism induces very profound antigen-specific T cell responses,” Altschuler said, adding that the platform is “very flexible and in effect, antigen-agnostic.”As an example of the platform’s potential power, Altschuler pointed to mRNA-based cancer vaccines already in development, such as Moderna’s mRNA-4157 (V940). At AACR, the biotech shared new data showing that the individualised neoantigen therapy, in combination with partner Merck & Co.’s anti-PD-1 antibody Keytruda (pembrolizumab), led to a response rate of 27.3% in 22 patients with unresectable, metastatic HPV-negative head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC).If Corner’s catalytic adjuvant technology was incorporated into an mRNA-based vaccine, “we would expect our platform to enhance the efficacy of those vaccines because of this much better T cell response,” Altschuler said, which could in turn confer longer immunity.