Beyond Biotech podcast 19: Bone Health Technologies, Immutep, TAU Systems

2:22 Labiotech.eu news
4:53 TAU Systems
21:54 Bone Health Technologies 
33:26 Immutep
44:36 JLL

This week, we have conversations with Marc Voigt, CEO of Immutep; Manuel Hegelich, CEO of TAU Systems; and ​​Laura Yecies, CEO of Bone Health Technologies. 

We also have our weekly chat with global commercial real estate services company JLL, with Travis McCready. 

FDA fast tracks Immutep non-small cell lung cancer candidate

Immutep Limited says the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted fast track designation to eftilagimod alpha (efti or IMP321) in combination with pembrolizumab for the treatment of first line non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Efti is the company’s first-in-class soluble LAG-3 clinical stage candidate, which activates antigen presenting cells (APC) to engage both the innate and adaptive immune system to target solid tumors.

The designation has been granted for the development of efti in combination with pembrolizumab in first line treatment of stage IIIB/IV NSCLC patients expressing PD-L1 tumor proportion score greater than or equal to 1%, not amenable to EGFR/ALK based therapy. The designation is based on the TACTI-002/KEYNOTE-798 phase II clinical data in first line NSCLC for PD-L1 all-comers.

This represents the second fast track designation for efti, following the same designation in April 2021 for efti in combination with pembrolizumab in first line treatment of recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. 

TAU Systems to build new generation of compact particle accelerators after $15M investment

TAU Systems has raised $15 million in seed investment to bring particle accelerators to a multitude of users by harnessing the latest laser technology to make electrons surf on three-dimensional plasma waves and accelerate them to ultra-high energies.

The news is significant as, until now, high-energy particle accelerators have been limited to countries and governmental organizations. Due to their huge size and high cost, access for engineers and biotech professionals is severely limited. 

The laser-driven particle accelerators and X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) developed by TAU Systems will give access to a world of ultra-small objects evolving ultra-fast under ultra-powerful conditions – TAU's team calls it the Ultraverse.

TAU Systems said it will offer beamtime, data acquisition and analysis as a full-service supplier as well as complete laser-driven accelerators and XFEL systems for sale, to, for example, pharma and biotech, battery and solar technology, and other material-science driven markets. 

Bone Health Technologies at ASBMR 2022

The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) annual meeting was held recently in Texas.

The ASBMR is a professional, scientific and medical society established to bring together clinical and experimental scientists who are involved in the study of bone and mineral metabolism.

One of the companies attending was Bone Health Technologies, a San Francisco-based company that applies science and medical expertise to create better health outcomes for women and men at risk of developing osteoporosis and the associated bone fractures.  The company has created OsteoBoost, the first vibration belt specifically designed to treat osteopenia and prevent osteoporosis.

Initially created in the med-tech incubator TheraNova, Bone Health Technologies is poised to become the new standard of care in treating both osteoporosis and osteopenia (the precursor to osteoporosis). 

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