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Oncimmune Reports Robust Interim Results, Exceeding Previous Year's Revenue in Just Six Months

Oncimmune Holdings PLC

Oncimmune CEO Martin Gouldstone joined Steve Darling from Proactive to announce the company's interim results for the six months ended February 29, 2024. During this period, Oncimmune achieved revenue of £1.19 million, marking a significant milestone in the company's financial performance. This revenue surpasses the £1.15 million generated from continuing operations in the entire fiscal year 2023, indicating a notable improvement and reflecting a strategic shift initiated in October 2023. Gouldstone expressed satisfaction with the company's performance in the first half of fiscal year 2024, highlighting the substantial increase in revenues compared to the ImmunoINSIGHTSTM business in fiscal year 2023. This achievement underscores the effectiveness of Oncimmune's new strategic approach and commercial endeavors, which are gaining momentum. Moreover, Gouldstone revealed that Oncimmune secured contracts for seven new projects during the reporting period. These contracts are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2024, contributing to the company's revenue growth trajectory. Additionally, Oncimmune entered into a Master Services Agreement with Freenome, further enhancing its commercial portfolio. Looking ahead, Oncimmune is well-positioned for continued growth, with 15 new commercial opportunities in the proposal stage as of April 2024. These opportunities represent a total weighted pipeline value exceeding £2.5 million. While some revenue is anticipated to be recognized in fiscal year 2024, the majority is expected in fiscal year 2025, reflecting the company's ongoing expansion efforts and future revenue prospects. Contact Details Proactive UK Ltd +44 20 7989 0813 uk@proactiveinvestors.com

May 24, 2024 12:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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College of American Pathologists: Cancer Rates Soaring in Younger Adults

YourUpdateTV

A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/rq8XcHBnPw0 Cancer doesn’t discriminate by age today. Consider celebrities like Chadwick Boseman, who died from colon cancer; Olivia Munn, who recently underwent a double mastectomy; Ninja, a popular streamer on Twitch diagnosed with skin cancer; and Catherine, the Princess of Wales, who is currently being treated for the disease. All of them were diagnosed before the age of 50. Why is this happening and what can we do to catch it early? There are several reasons: diet, lifestyle, and environmental factors. The College of American Pathologists is emphasizing the importance of early detection, screening, and being vigilant regarding symptoms. A nationwide media tour was conducted to discuss this important issue featuring Dr. Donald Karcher, president of the College of American Pathologists. Topics that Dr. Karcher discussed included: • What is behind the soaring trend of younger adults being diagnosed with cancer? • What symptoms to look for to improve cancer outcomes. • What cancers can and should be screened for? • What if you don’t meet the minimum age requirements for screening but are having symptoms? • Discussing the importance of early detection. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: YOURPATHOLOGIST.ORG Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

May 23, 2024 02:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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Shedding Light on Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month

YourUpdateTV

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare, progressive, and genetic disease that currently affects about 40,000 people in the United States. CF is the result of a defective gene, inherited from each parent, and the disease can impact people of all races and ethnicities. Recently, KC White, Board Chair of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, participated in a nationwide satellite media tour to discuss the disease, her personal journey, and how the Foundation is helping progress care and treatment options. A video accompanying this announcement is available at: https://youtu.be/8wj8u0JEqLU CF is a life-shortening disease that prevents our bodies from clearing mucus. This can lead to lung infections, poor nutrition, lung disease, and a host of unique challenges that can impact every aspect of a person’s life. When it was first discovered, it was considered a fatal pediatric disease. But due to transformative advancements in treatments and high-quality care, the life-expectancy for someone born with CF today is 56. While that number is climbing there is still a long way to go and unfortunately, not all people with CF equally benefit from this progress. KC White was elected chair of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Board of Trustees in 2022 after serving on the Board since 2005. Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 3, White has been a committed volunteer and inspiring advocate for the Foundation since childhood and is the first person with CF to serve as board chair. When she was diagnosed, she wasn’t expected to live past high school age, but her family refused to accept that fate, which prompted their dedication to the Foundation’s work. Because of recent treatments known as modulators, about 90% of the CF population (including KC) experienced an incredible transformation in their health. With this though, comes navigating unplanned challenges including careers, finances, family, and more. In addition to fueling the research, particularly in genetic therapies, that will lead to transformative treatments for the entire CF population, the CF Foundation works to support the CF community in all aspects of their lives through support programs and fostering connection opportunities. Every May, the cystic fibrosis community comes together for CF Awareness Month to educate the public about the rare disease, share personal stories, and encourage people to get involved and unite behind a shared mission: finding a cure for all people with CF. The CF Foundation is committed to finding a cure and providing all people with CF the opportunity to lead long, fulfilling lives. The Foundation is aggressively funding research and drug development, advancing high-quality, specialized care, and partnering with and advocating for the CF community. For more information, visit CFF.ORG/CFMONTH About KC White KC White was elected chair of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Board of Trustees in 2022 after serving on the Board since 2005. Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 3, White has been a committed volunteer and inspiring advocate for the Foundation since childhood, speaking at her first Foundation event when she was only 9 years old. She is the first person with CF to serve as board chair. White received her Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 and currently serves as an assistant instructor in the program. She is also the Head Varsity Women’s Lacrosse coach for the Chagrin Falls, Ohio, Tigers. She and her husband, Justin, have one son, Mac. About the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is a donor-supported nonprofit organization leading the relentless pursuit of a cure for cystic fibrosis. The Foundation is committed to providing all people with CF the opportunity to lead long, fulfilling lives by funding research and drug development, advancing high-quality, specialized care, and partnering with and advocating for the CF community. The Foundation funds more CF research than any other organization, and nearly every CF drug available today was made possible because of Foundation support. The organization supports and accredits a national network of over 130 CF care centers recognized by the National Institutes of Health as a model of care for a chronic disease. Also, the Foundation manages support programs and fosters connection opportunities for the CF community. Based in Bethesda, Md., the Foundation’s impact is made possible by the work of nearly 70 local chapters across the country. Contact Details YourUpdateTV +1 212-736-2727 yourupdatetv@gmail.com

May 23, 2024 12:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time

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PathAI and Aster Insights Partner to Deliver Combined AI-Derived Structured Pathology and Multimodal Real-World Data Solutions

PathAI

PathAI, a global leader in AI-powered pathology, and Aster Insights, the leading provider of scientific and clinical intelligence for oncology discovery, today announced a multi-year strategic partnership to develop curated multimodal datasets that pair PathAI’s PathExplore 1 artificial intelligence (AI) tumor microenvironment (TME) quantification panel with Aster Insights’ Avatar clinical, molecular, and digital pathology imaging data. By combining their respective best-in-class platforms, PathAI and Aster Insights will be able to expedite the development of novel insights to accelerate the discovery and development of new treatments for patients with cancer. The partnership will allow PathAI to utilize digital whole slide imaging (WSI) from Aster Insights’ Oncology Research Information Exchange Network ® (ORIEN). ORIEN ® members participate in Total Cancer Care ® (TCC), the world’s largest and longest-running observational research study in oncology, which has accrued over 400,000 patients to date. Digital pathology images contain a wealth of untapped data, and PathAI’s PathExplore is the world’s first structured, standardized, and scalable product that leverages AI to characterize the TME from routinely available hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained digital WSIs. PathExplore exhaustively detects and classifies the millions of cell and tissue regions across H&E WSIs to provide researchers access to important insights, such as patterns of immune cell infiltration and presence of complex tissue structures. These data are critical for better understanding existing treatments and the development of novel therapeutics. PathExplore features are paired with Aster’s Avatar multimodal data including tumor whole exome and whole transcriptome sequencing, which allows researchers to follow a patient throughout their cancer journey and access rich information about their cancer biology. Avatar provides a powerful set of data, allowing for a deeper understanding of disease pathology, and what happens to patients when they are exposed to certain treatments. “Analysis of histopathology images uniquely allows researchers to define and quantify spatial changes in the tumor microenvironment resulting from treatment or disease progression,” said Andy Beck, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of PathAI. “Our collaboration with Aster Insights is empowering researchers with robust multimodal datasets to explore hypotheses such as identifying and analyzing novel histological biomarkers correlated with patient treatment, outcomes, and gene expression.” “Our approach to leveraging AI with multimodal data will lead to new information and deeper insights than currently possible,” said Anand Shah, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Aster Insights. “Together with PathAI, we are creating new knowledge that is critical for researchers and life sciences partners to expand therapeutic options.” PathAI and Aster Insights are offering these joint solutions to biopharma customers to support targeted and pan-cancer initiatives across the drug development lifecycle. For more information, please contact Aster Insights and PathAI. You can also connect with both companies at ASCO in Chicago, IL, from May 31-June 4, 2024. Footnotes 1 PathExplore is For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures. About PathAI PathAI is the only AI-focused technology company to provide comprehensive precision pathology solutions from wet lab services to algorithm deployment for clinical trials to the industry leading AISight Image Management System. Rigorously trained and validated with data from more than 15 million annotations, its AI-powered models can be leveraged to optimize the analysis of pathology samples to improve efficiency and accuracy of pathology interpretation, as well as to better gauge biomarker status and accelerate drug development for complex diseases. For more information, please visit www.pathai.com. About Aster Insights Aster Insights is the leading provider of scientific and clinical intelligence for oncology discovery. We partner with drug, biologics, diagnostics, and medical device developers to accelerate oncology product discovery and development. Aster Insights leads the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network® (ORIEN), a consortium of the nation's leading cancer centers that conduct Total Cancer Care®, the world's largest and longest running observational research study in oncology. Together, we are changing the way cancer is studied, treated, and prevented. Learn more at www.AsterInsights.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Contact Details SVM Public Relations and Marketing Communications Maggie Naples +1 401-490-9700 pathai@svmpr.com Aster Insights Dawn Thomas-Smith dawn.thomas-smith@asterinsights.com Company Website https://www.pathai.com/

May 23, 2024 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Technology Is Enabling Remote Work In More And More Fields – Could Surgery Be Next? Surgical Robot Maker Monogram Orthopedics (NASDAQ: MGRM) Believes So

Benzinga

By Meg Flippin, Benzinga From far-flung corners of the world to rural towns across America, remote, robotic surgeries have the potential to change the way doctors treat patients. Using advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, teleconferencing and the internet, doctors can perform everything from knee replacements to gastric bypass without ever leaving their healthcare facility. That is already changing how care is delivered. Remote surgeries can provide cheaper and faster solutions – improving the accessibility of high-quality surgical care, overcoming surgeon shortages and saving patients money by removing the need to travel long distances for healthcare. Then there’s the enhanced accuracy and improved outcomes surgeons can achieve by using robotics to perform surgeries that otherwise would be manual and subject to potential human error. Take knee replacements, for one example. As it stands, 88% of knee surgeries are still performed manually, opening patients up to errors that could require more treatment and care. The benefits don’t end there. By using minimally invasive robotic methods, patients often see a reduction in complications, pain and infections. Not to mention, these methods can lead to faster recovery times and shorter hospital stays. All of those positives haven’t been lost on the medical community and are driving demand for telesurgery. According to Research and Markets, the surgical robots market is poised to hit $7.3 billion by 2030, up from $6.4 billion in 2022 – growing at a CAGR of 13.5% during the forecast period. The need for robotics can be found in every area of surgical care but seems particularly poised to grow in orthopedics. The orthopedic device market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% through 2030, reaching $80.28 billion, according to Fortune Business Insights. Driving the growth is a rising prevalence of osteoporosis and musculoskeletal diseases, an aging population and an increase in sports-related injuries. The technology and procedures used today are antiquated, and robots could help with an overhaul. Monogram Demonstrates Its Prowess When it comes to remote robotic surgery, many players are trying to advance this type of treatment care. One company that seems to be seeing success is Monogram Orthopedics Inc. (NASDAQ: MGRM), the Austin, Texas medical technology company aiming to revolutionize orthopedic joint replacement surgery with its robotic technology, which links 3D printing and robotics with advanced pre-operative imaging. The company is developing a robot that it believes could help improve the standard of care in orthopedics in the future. Accompanying the robot are what the company describes as its “patient optimized” mPress implants that the company believes, when combined with robotics, could help surgeons deliver personalized care. Last year, the company made history by completing what it says is the first fully remote simulated robotic surgery in orthopedics. On March 7, 2023, Douglas Unis, MD of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and founder of Monogram Orthopedics, completed a fully remote total knee arthroplasty (TKA) procedure on a cadaver, controlling the Austin-based robot from New York City in real-time via the system’s user-operated foot pedal. Unis said at the time that despite being 1,700 miles away, the real-time system was very responsive with little in the way of latency. The successful simulated cadaveric surgery was live-streamed for the world to see. Internet Reliability On Display To demonstrate the capabilities and ensure the surgery went off without a hitch, Monogram tapped Real-Time Innovations’ RTI Connext® Anywhere software to provide real-time connectivity, which is extremely important for remote surgeries to be a success. To address the technical challenges of teleoperation, Monogram required a flexible software connectivity solution that was designed for distributed, secure and reliable data flow. Connext Anywhere, based on the Data Distribution Service (DDS™) standard, accelerates the development of intelligent and connected platforms and provides a range of reliability features to optimize and prioritize real-time data flow over intermittent networks. That proved true during the remote surgery. "A joint-replacement surgery is incredibly invasive, stressful and is still a largely manual process today, with 100,000 knee replacements failing each year," Kamran Shamaei, CTO at Monogram said at the time. "We feel strongly that our total knee replacement system, with RTI's underlying technology, could eventually help to dramatically reduce this number, hopefully helping patients to have a more stable, better-fitting knee replacement with fewer complications in a fraction of the time it takes today." It’s Just The Beginning Since Monogram’s successful demonstration, the company has made inroads in bringing robotic surgeries to the mainstream. It recently announced it delivered its first surgical robot, mBôs, to one of the world’s largest global robotics distributors. It marked the first sale for Monogram Orthopedics. In pre-clinical simulated cadaveric surgeries, Monogram’s robot was able to complete an orthopedic surgery in 40 minutes – about half the time it has taken some systems today. The goal is to try and get surgical timed down to 20 minutes with the help of the company’s recently announced mVIsion navigation. Remote robotic surgeries are just taking off as companies like Monogram aim to revolutionize surgical care. Telesurgery has the potential to level the playing field, help surgeon adoption and potentially improve patient outcomes, and make treatment more accessible and affordable for people residing in even the most remote locations. Just like video conferencing transformed the way we communicate, telesurgery is poised to change the way doctors across the world perform surgeries. Monogram is positioning itself to play a major role in that revolution. Featured photo by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash. Benzinga is a leading financial media and data provider, known for delivering accurate, timely, and actionable financial information to empower investors and traders. This post contains sponsored content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice. Contact Details Benzinga +1 877-440-9464 info@benzinga.com Company Website http://www.benzinga.com

May 23, 2024 08:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Tuktu Care Inc. Scales On-Demand Platform to Revolutionize Senior Care to Ontario

Rev Up Marketers

Tuktu Care Inc., a three year old Canadian startup that started in British Columbia, is revolutionizing senior care with its cutting-edge on-demand platform to meet the challenges posed by Canada's rapidly aging population. Tuktu Care Inc. provides accessible and affordable care solutions for seniors across Canada. Tuktu Care Inc. has developed a platform that bridges the gap between the growing demand for senior care and the limited availability of services. By adopting advanced technology, Tuktu Care connects seniors with caregivers and essential services, safeguarding they receive the support they need, when they need it, at an affordable price. The platform is designed to be user-friendly and flexible, providing a wide range of services tailored to meet the diverse needs of the senior community. Founded with a vision to reinvent community-based care, Tuktu Care is leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to create a platform that is not only efficient but highly personalized. "Our mission is to ensure that every senior in Canada has access to the care they need, tailored to their individual preferences and requirements," says Rustam Sengupta, CEO of Tuktu Care. "We're using cutting-edge technology to disrupt traditional care models and foster a more connected and compassionate society." The platform's AI algorithms analyze user data to match seniors with caregivers who are suited to their needs, bolstering a level of personalization that sets Tuktu Care apart. This technology-driven approach streamlines operations and leads to more satisfied customers and improved care outcomes. Tuktu Care offers a comprehensive range of services, from companionship and personal care to specialized support for conditions like dementia and Alzheimer's. The flexibility of the platform allows seniors to receive the care they need in the comfort of their own homes, promoting independence and well-being. Laurie Lathem, VP of Growth at Tuktu Care, emphasizes the potential of the platform to reach underserved populations. "Our technology and community-driven approach enable us to connect with large groups of people, especially those in remote or disadvantaged areas. This is just the beginning; we're committed to expanding our reach and impact." As Tuktu Care continues to grow, its focus remains on improving the lives of seniors and their families. With plans to expand further into the United States and beyond, the company is poised to become a global leader in on-demand senior care. For more information, visit www.tuktu.ca or download the Tuktu Care app. About Tuktu Care Inc.: Tuktu started with a single promise of bringing people closer. They believe that better technological solutions can create a robust aging-in-place infrastructure, reduce social isolation, and ensure peace of mind for family caregivers. Contact Details Tuktu Care Inc Rustam Sengupta rustams@tuktu.ca Company Website http://www.tuktu.ca/

May 23, 2024 12:34 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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BenevolentAI and AstraZeneca Advance Heart Failure Treatment Discovery

BenevolentAI

BenevolentAI Co-Founder Dr. Ivan Griffin shared exciting news with Proactive's Steve Darling regarding the company's collaboration with AstraZeneca. Through this partnership, AstraZeneca has incorporated a novel target for Heart Failure into its discovery portfolio, thanks to BenevolentAI's AI-driven drug discovery platform. Dr. Griffin emphasized that this achievement marks a significant milestone, as it represents the first target selected from the extended collaboration with AstraZeneca. This underscores the positive progress in Target Identification within the field of Heart Failure treatment. The collaboration between BenevolentAI and AstraZeneca began in 2019, initially focusing on discovering potential treatments for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and chronic kidney disease. Building on this success, the collaboration expanded in January 2022 to include Heart Failure and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, showcasing the versatility of BenevolentAI's platform across multiple therapeutic areas. One of the key strengths of this collaboration is its innovative structure, which brings together scientists and technologists from both companies to work collaboratively. By combining BenevolentAI's AI-driven platform and biomedical knowledge with AstraZeneca's scientific expertise, the collaboration has yielded novel and robust Target Identification strategies. Overall, the advancement in Heart Failure treatment discovery reflects the commitment of BenevolentAI and AstraZeneca to leveraging cutting-edge technology and collaborative efforts to address unmet medical needs and improve patient outcomes. Contact Details Proactive North America +1 604-688-8158 NA-editorial@proactiveinvestors.com

May 22, 2024 09:25 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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Revolutionizing Mental Healthcare With The Rise Of Ketamine And Psychedelic Therapies

Benzinga

By Faith Ashmore, Benzinga In the world of mental healthcare, there has been growing criticism over traditional drugs that treat depression. Traditional drugs that treat depression, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), primarily target the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain, specifically serotonin and norepinephrine, to alleviate symptoms of depression. These medications work by blocking the reuptake of these neurotransmitters, allowing them to accumulate in the brain and enhance mood regulation. However, SSRIs and SNRIs have received criticism for their potential side effects, such as sexual dysfunction, weight gain and withdrawal symptoms. More and more studies are coming out questioning their efficacy as well. As antidepressants are looking less shiny to consumers and scientists, it begs the question, what is the alternative? Is Ketamine The Answer To Hard To Treat Mental Illnesses? In recent years, alternative treatments for hard-to-treat mental illnesses like treatment-resistant depression (TRD), bipolar 2 and PTSD have become increasingly common and sought-after. Drugs like MDMA and ketamine have gotten attention for being often more effective and less dangerous than traditional medicine. Ketamine, which is a dissociative anesthetic, targets the glutamate system in the brain, specifically the NMDA receptors, and modulates the release of neurotransmitters like glutamate. By doing so, ketamine can rapidly improve depressive symptoms, often within hours or days, in contrast to the weeks or months that traditional antidepressants may require. Psychedelics, like ketamine, are emerging as a potential treatment option for mental health conditions by disrupting rigid neural pathways associated with depression, anxiety, and other disorders. Research indicates that these substances have the potential to promote neuroplasticity and restore neural circuits, ultimately leading to improved mental health outcomes. For patients who are struggling under the weight of a difficult-to-treat mental illness, these alternatives can be life-saving. Even high-profile celebrities like Elon Musk have opened up about their success with ketamine as a depression treatment. Companies like SiloPharma Inc. (NASDAQ: SILO) are at the forefront of developing alternative treatments for conditions such as depression. With a focus on underserved areas, including PTSD, stress-induced psychiatric disorders, chronic pain and central nervous system diseases, SiloPharma aims to provide novel therapeutics to address these unmet needs. They have built a growing pipeline of opportunities, leveraging the promising potential of psychedelic drugs and conventional formulations. The company recently conducted a study in partnership with Columbia University, which explored new pathways involved in mood regulation. This study yielded promising results, showing significant improvements in patient mood stability without the common side effects of existing antidepressants. As a result, Silo has successfully progressed SPC-15 through pre-clinical development and is now preparing to submit a pre-investigational New Drug Application (IND) to the FDA. This application will focus on SPC-15's use in treating PTSD, a lead indication for the drug. “The recently completed study demonstrated marked improvements in mood stability, which we see as a potentially significant development for combatting depression and preventing relapse,” said Silo CEO Eric Weisblum. “While advancing our SPC-15 program in PTSD to the clinic remains our top pipeline priority, we are excited about these encouraging new results and the additional potential for treating millions of people affected by depression which could ultimately expand our pipeline.” Silo has exercised its option to license SPC-15 from Columbia University, as outlined in its sponsored research and option agreement established in 2021. The license agreement, currently in the finalization stage, will grant Silo the exclusive rights to further develop, manufacture and distribute SPC-15 globally. Completion of the exclusive license agreement is expected by the first half of 2024. SiloPharma is not alone in the pursuit of alternative treatment for mental health; Atai Life Sciences (NASDAQ: ATAI) and Field Trip Health Ltd (NASDAQ: FTRP) are both exploring R-ketamine and MDMA treatments, respectively. For patients who are in desperate need of alternative treatment, ketamine is looking like a viable option, and companies like SiloPharma are helping to make that more possible. Featured photo by Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash. Benzinga is a leading financial media and data provider, known for delivering accurate, timely, and actionable financial information to empower investors and traders. This post contains sponsored content. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice. Contact Details Benzinga +1 877-440-9464 info@benzinga.com Company Website http://www.benzinga.com

May 22, 2024 08:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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MAIA Biotechnology's Unique Telomere Targeting Agent Currently In Clinical Development Shows Promise For The Multi-Billion Dollar Cancer Therapy Market

Benzinga

By Kyle Anthony, Benzinga MAIA Biotechnology (AMEX: MAIA) is a cutting-edge biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative therapies for cancer treatment. The company’s mission is to discover, develop and deliver transformative cancer therapies that improve patients' lives worldwide. MAIA Biotechnology envisions a future where cancer is manageable and patients can live longer, healthier lives. The firm is at the forefront of revolutionizing oncology, leveraging advanced scientific research and technological advancements to drive its progress, with the goal of bringing treatments that target cancer's replication mechanism in a more efficacious and less harmful manner than traditional therapies. Company Background Founded in August 2018 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, MAIA Biotechnology is led by an experienced management team and supported by scientific advisors with extensive drug development experience who are committed to advancing promising agents into human clinical trials. MAIA Biotechnology specializes in telomere-targeting therapies for cancer treatment. As such, the firm’s current product focus is the development of first-in-class drugs that target proteins that control how cancer cells grow, divide and spread. MAIA Biotechnology's pipeline includes several promising candidates in various stages of development, but its premier product offering is THIO (6-thio-2′-deoxyguanosine), a first-in-class telomere-targeting agent designed to selectively kill telomerase-positive cancer cells, which are present in most human cancers. The Role Of Telomeres In Cancer Telomeres play a crucial role in cellular aging and cancer development. Research published by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute explains that cancer cells often avoid senescence or cell death by rebuilding and maintaining their telomeres despite repeated cell divisions. This is possible because the cancer cells activate an enzyme called telomerase, which adds genetic units to the telomeres to prevent them from shortening to the point of causing cell death. As a result, cancer cells essentially become immortal. Telomerase is silenced in most normal cells but is active in an estimated 85% to 95% of human cancer cells. Since telomerase is active in cancer cells but not normal cells, it is seen as a promising target for cancer therapy. Due to telomerase inhibition, activity or expression, telomere-targeting drugs might kill tumor cells by allowing telomeres to shrink or by provoking apoptosis, the process of programmed cell death. By incorporating into telomeres, THIO disrupts their function, leading to cancer cell death. This approach has shown promising preclinical results and has been undergoing clinical trials. Product Development Pipeline THIO is MAIA Biotechnology’s most advanced product offering, which has shown positive efficacy findings in treating advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in clinical trials. The ongoing clinical trial is testing the hypothesis that lower doses of THIO administered before immune checkpoint inhibitor Libtayo® treatment (i.e., stimulation of the immune system to attack cancer cells) would enhance and prolong responses in subjects with advanced NSCLC who did not respond or progress after first-line treatment with a checkpoint inhibitor, a type of drug that blocks proteins called checkpoints that are made by some types of immune system cells such as T cells and some cancer cells. These checkpoints help keep immune responses from being too strong and sometimes can keep T cells from killing cancer cells. The clinical trial's positive results support THIO's tolerability and safety as an anticancer therapy and a priming immune activator. Treatment with THIO sequenced with Libtayo® treatment was found to be well-tolerated in a heavily pre-treated population thus far. MAIA Biotechnology is also researching other drug treatments, using its expertise in telomere-targeting agents as a foundation. The company’s second-generation program aims to discover new compounds with potentially improved specificity toward cancer cells relative to normal cells and potentially increased anticancer activity. This program will allow MAIA Biotechnology to strengthen its patent portfolio over time, which already has five issued patents and 29 applications pending worldwide. Market Potential and Industry Impact Research published by Coherent Market Insights estimates the cancer therapy market will be worth $205.10 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $466.21 billion by 2031. The driving factors behind this growth are the rising occurrence of cancer worldwide and the increasing demand for cancer treatment. As such, MAIA Biotechnology‘s THIO addresses a large and growing market. As outlined in their most recent corporate presentation, lung and colon cancer are the first and second most prevalent cancer types globally, respectively, and treating them specifically would generate billions in sales. Given the current opportunity, MAIA Biotechnology will continue to protect its intellectual property while expanding its patent portfolio. Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted a third orphan drug designation (ODD) to THIO as a treatment for glioblastoma; the drug also holds ODDs for hepatocellular carcinoma and small-cell lung cancer. The glioblastoma market is expected to grow from $2.2 billion to $3.2 billion globally in the next three years. The FDA’s ODD program provides multiple incentives to make orphan drug development more financially feasible for companies. These include up to seven years of market exclusivity for the approved orphan drug, up to 20 years of 25% federal tax credit for expenses incurred in conducting clinical research within the U.S., and waiver of Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) fees for orphan drugs, a value of approximately $2.9 million in 2021. Conclusion MAIA Biotechnology’s approach to cancer treatment differentiates it from its peers, potentially placing the company in a unique market position. As incidences of cancer continue to rise globally, drug treatment options, such as THIO, will likely rise in demand. As such, the benefit that MAIA Biotechnology provides and the value proposition the firm espouses will likely continue to have industry resonance. Featured photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash. Benzinga is a leading financial media and data provider, known for delivering accurate, timely, and actionable financial information to empower investors and traders. This post contains sponsored content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice. Contact Details Benzinga +1 877-440-9464 info@benzinga.com Company Website http://www.benzinga.com

May 22, 2024 08:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time

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