The Bio Report

Immunotherapies have mostly sought to harness the adaptive immune system, but Silverback Therapeutics believes its technology platform will allow it to enlist the innate immune system in the fight against cancer, fibrosis, and infectious diseases. The company is developing antibody conjugates that activate myeloid cells to target tumors. It’s lead indication is in HER-2 positive tumors. We spoke to Peter Thompson, co-founder and CEO of Silverback, about the company’s platform technology, its potential applications, and the challenges of activating the innate immune system in a targeted fashion.

Artificial intelligence is all the rage in drug discovery today, but there are efforts to apply to technology to other aspects of the drug development continuum to improve decision making and increase efficiency. One such example is Phesi, which has developed an artificial intelligence platform to improve clinical site selection, evaluate protocol designs and patient inclusion criteria, and manage the implementation of trials. We spoke to Gen Li, founder and president of Phesi, about his company’s AI platform, how it works, and the case for the use of artificial intelligence as a tool to improve drug development.

Antibody-drug conjugates marry the precise targeting of an antibody to a cytotoxic payload. That has the potential to provide a powerful treatment approach to a variety of cancers with less toxicity than systemically delivered chemotherapy. The problem has been producing large quantities of antibody-drug conjugates in a consistent manner where all the pieces are where they belong. Sutro Biopharma has developed a technology platform that allows it to precisely design and consistently manufacture these molecules. We spoke to Bill Newell, CEO of Sutro, about the promise of antibody-drug conjugates, the company’s platform technology, and its lead therapeutic candidates.

While much of the focus of drug developers looking to act on the genetic mechanisms underlying diseases has focused on the genes that code for proteins, Syros Pharmaceuticals is looking to the regulatory regions of the genome. This is the noncoding part of the genome that controls the expression of genes, turning them on or off, or modulating their level of activity. We spoke to Eric Olson, chief scientific officer of Syros Pharmaceuticals, about the company’s discovery platform, its pursuit of cancer and monogenic diseases, and the lead programs in its pipeline.

Anixa Biosciences is harnessing the immune system to both diagnose and treat cancer. It recently announced a licensing agreement with the Cleveland clinic for a novel breast cancer vaccine that is being developed for both therapeutic and prophylactic use. It’s lead candidate is a CAR-T cell therapy in development for ovarian and other solid tumors. We spoke to Amit Kumar, president and CEO of Anixa, about the company’s strategy to pursue both therapeutic and diagnostic products, its partnerships with leading research institutes, and its development strategy going forward.

There’s growing interest in cannabinoids for their therapeutic potential in a range of conditions, but one challenge therapeutic developers face is a reliable and consistent supply. Teewinot Life Sciences is using synthetic biology to produce a range of cannabinoids. We spoke to Michael Luther, president and CEO of Teewinot Life Sciences, about the companies process for producing cannabinoids, its business model, and the therapeutic and consumer areas it plans to pursue.

Much has been made about a cancer moonshot, but in the world of oncology, rocket fuel is rarely a topic of conversation except maybe as a metaphor. EpicentRx, though, is looking to rocket fuel as a source for its lead experimental therapy RRx-001. It believes this high-energy molecule, derived from rocket fuel, has the potential to improve immunotherapies and radiotherapies, as well as having anticancer activity on its own. We spoke to Corey Carter, president and CEO of EpicentRx about how RRx-001 came about, how it works, and the company’s oncolytic viral pipeline also in development.

The complexity of individual tumors creates a challenge for physicians to determine the optimal treatment for any given patient. This complexity may also require a combination of therapies to target the multiple pathways a given cancer may exploit to grow and spread. My Personalized Therapeutics is taking a model systems approach to pair patients to customized drug regimens by using fruit fly models of a patient’s cancer to screen hundreds of FDA approved therapies and combinations. We spoke to Laura Towart, co-founder and CEO of My Personalized Therapeutics, about the company’s Personalized Discovery Process, how it works, and why it may lead to better outcomes for cancer patients.

As biomedical data proliferates and the life sciences becomes more closely integrated with data science, the ability for researchers to access, use, and learn from the growing universe of information requires new tools. InveniAI is seeking to address this need with its artificial intelligence platform for biopharmaceutical companies to both monitor innovation and to enhance their own drug development capabilities. We spoke to Krishnan Nandabalan, president and CEO of InveniAI, about the company, how its artificial intelligence platform is being used, and what he expects the ultimate payoff from this technology will be.

The convergence of information technology with the life sciences is opening up new ways of approaching the challenges of drug discovery and development. While much has been made about approaches that seek to leverage artificial intelligence, Nanome is bringing virtural reality into the process. With the company’s technology, scientists can take a fantastic journey to view and manipulate proteins, compounds, and other molecules at a nanoscale. We spoke to Steve McCloskey, founder and CEO of Nanome, about the company’s virtual reality platform, how scientists can use it to collaborate in real time, and its potential to change the way researchers discover and develop drugs.