InteRNA Technologies has appointed Andrea van Elsas, Ph.D., as a new member of the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). Dr. van Elsas is an immuno-oncology expert with over 20 years of experience in advancing highly innovative oncology assets and currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer of Aduro Biotech. In his role on the SAB, Dr. van Elsas will support InteRNA’s pipeline development efforts and in particular the positioning and strategy for lead program INT-1B3 advancing into clinical development. Dr. van Elsas will succeed Allan Balmain, Ph.D., F.R.S., who has stepped down from his position on the board.

“Andrea has always worked at the heart of cancer therapy drug discovery efforts and his outstanding track record in identifying and developing innovative therapeutics will be a great benefit to us,” said Dr. Roel Schaapveld, CEO of InteRNA. “With his added oversight, we aim to further advance GLP toxicology studies and move towards the clinical evaluation of our promising lead candidate, INT-1B3, in the immuno-oncology field. We also would like to thank Allan for sharing his knowledge and providing significant contributions to our R&D programs over the years.”

“InteRNA has developed a uniquely positioned RNA therapy attacking cancer from multiple angles, with the potential of inducing durable immunity as a single agent and in combination therapy,” said Dr. van Elsas. “I am impressed by the team’s profound work on defining the mode-of-action and selecting an optimized delivery technology for INT-1B3 and am thrilled to contribute to the advancement of this novel therapeutic strategy.”

Prior to his position asCSO of Aduro Biotech,Dr. van Elsas was CSO of Aduro Biotech Europe from 2015 to 2017. He joined Aduro following the 2015 acquisition of BioNovion, a company he co-founded and served as CSO, that was focused on the development of innovative therapeutic antibodies in the field of immuno-oncology. In addition, Dr. van Elsas supports Gilde Healthcare as an Operational Partner in the evaluation of investment opportunities and has been acting as VP of Research for Gilde’s portfolio company, AM Pharma, since 2011. From 1999 to 2011, he held various positions of increasing responsibilities at Organon (acquired by Schering-Plough Corporation and later by Merck) in Oss, The Netherlands, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. As Organon’s Director of Tumor Immunology he oversaw the immuno-oncology portfolio and led the anti-PD1 program that later became known as pembrolizumab. As a post-doc he worked in the lab of Nobel Laureate Jim Allison at the University of California, Berkeley and is a co-inventor on the original anti-CTLA4 patents that formed the basis for the development of ipilimumab (Yervoy^TM), the first checkpoint inhibitor approved for the treatment of melanoma. Dr. van Elsas holds a Ph.D. in Immunology and Oncology from the University of Leiden.

ProPharma Group, a portfolio company of Linden Capital Partners, announces the acquisition of Southwood Research. Based in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, Southwood Research is a leading provider of pre-approval regulatory science services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. “We are thrilled about our future as a part of ProPharma Group. The combination expands our global reach, as well as our ability to provide end-to-end services for our clients within regulatory affairs,” said Colin Wheeler, Southwood Research’s Managing Director.

This acquisition extends ProPharma Group’s highly specialized scientific regulatory affairs capabilities throughout the EU marketplace, while bolstering its regulatory affairs service portfolio from pre-clinical/pre-approval through post-approval. “Southwood Research’s proven experience is pivotal throughout the developmental phases of a product’s lifecycle and has made them an invaluable partner to their growing roster of pharmaceutical and biotech clients. We are excited to support the entire ProPharma Group organization as they expand their global presence and enhance their existing portfolio of services to better serve their customers,” said Michael Farah, Chairman of ProPharma and Partner at Linden Capital Partners.

ProPharma Group, a leading provider of compliance services, continues to expand its global presence, now with more than 1,100 employees across United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Australia. “The addition of Southwood Research’s deep scientific expertise emphasizes ProPharma Group’s commitment to providing industry leading regulatory support to our clients. ProPharma Group’s robust regulatory capabilities, bolstered by the recent additions of The Weinberg Group in the United States and now Southwood Research in the UK, represent a truly unique end-to-end global regulatory practice,” said Dawn Sherman, ProPharma Group’s CEO.

ProQR Therapeutics, a company dedicated to changing lives through the creation of transformative RNA medicines for the treatment of severe genetic rare diseases, has dosed the first patient in the Phase 1/2 STELLAR clinical trial for QR-421a in patients with Usher syndrome type 2 or non-syndromic retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Interim data from the study are expected to be announced mid-2019.

“There are no effective treatments for most inherited retinal diseases, including Usher syndrome, and blindness often results,” said David G. Birch, Ph.D., Principal Investigator of STELLAR and ScientificDirector of the Retina Foundation of the Southwest in Dallas, Texas. “The STELLAR study is one of the first studies of its kind exploring the impact of ProQR’s RNA therapies on patients with Usher syndrome due to an Exon 13 mutation. The STELLAR trial will explore whether QR-421a (ProQR’s RNA therapy) can slow disease progression or even reverse it. Treatments such as this, that target the underlying cause of a disorder, have the potential to give new hope to patients and their families that life-changing therapies could be available in the near future.”

“Usher syndrome is a devastating disease, so we are pleased to advance QR-421a into the clinic with the goal to make a difference for these patients, similar to what we have observed with early but promising data for sepofarsen in patients with LCA10,” said Daniel A. de Boer, chief executive officer of ProQR. “We are committed to rapidly advancing our promising RNA therapies for inherited retinal diseases and we believe our platform of generating targeted RNA therapies with long retinal half-lives and the ability to reach both central and peripheral retina, we will be able to target many of these diseases in the coming years.”

Usher syndrome is the leading cause of combined deafness and blindness. Exon 13 mutations in the USH2A gene targeted by QR-421a cause vision loss in approximately 16,000 individuals in the Western world.

Source: ProQR

Calypso Biotech, an emerging leader in the development of therapeutic antibodies for autoimmune diseases, closed a €20M Series A financing co-led by Gilde Healthcare and Inkef Capital. They are joined by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC), and the company’s founding investor M Ventures. Further, Calypso Biotech has become Resident Company at Johnson & Johnson Innovation JLABS at Beerse in Belgium (JLABS@BE). Arthur Franken from Gilde Healthcare will join Fiona MacLaughlin (Inkef Capital), Jeanne Bolger (JJDC) and Jasper Bos (M Ventures) on the Board of Directors.

The proceeds from this financing round will support the development of Calypso Biotech’s best-in class anti-Interleukin-15 (IL-15) antibody CALY-002 up to First-in-Patient studies in several autoimmune indications. IL-15 is an immune checkpoint cytokine that controls inflammation as well as multiple tissue-resident immune cells and recently attracted much attention in the immune-oncology space. Especially, IL-15 is being recognized as a key factor in the survival of tissue resident memory T cells, a population of immune cells involved in disease maintenance and recurrence.  Calypso Biotech scientists believe that targeting tissue resident memory T cells offers significant advantages over traditional cytokine interventional approaches and could provide for unprecedented disease-modifying effects.

Calypso Biotech has chosen to develop CALY-002 in Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) as well as in other undisclosed auto-immune indications. EoE is a severe and debilitating immune-related chronic disease of the esophagus that is the second leading cause of dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing) in adults. EoE has emerged as a frequent and significant cause of upper gastrointestinal morbidity particularly associated with important quality of life impairment and significant financial healthcare burden. CALY-002 has secured Orphan Drug Designation status from the European Medicines and Food & Drug Administration agencies for EoE.

“We believe the unique immunological insight and understanding  for the role of IL15 in disease brought by founders Alain Vicari and Yolande Chvatchko is now ready for translation into a therapy for patients with EoE, for whom limited therapies are available today, as well as in several large auto-immune indications” said Fiona MacLaughlin, Inkef Capital.

Calypso Biotech is also announcing major strengthening of its team. Bernard Coulie, current president and CEO of Pliant Therapeutics, will be appointed as independent Chairman of the Board. Together with Alexandre LeBeaut, Executive Vice-President and CSO of Ipsen and current independent Director of Calypso Biotech, they will contribute to develop its strategic vision and corporate success. Prof. Bart Lambrecht, from the VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research (Belgium), a leading translational immunology expert, will join Calypso Biotech Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Josephin-Beate Holz (ex Ablynx NV), Dr Greg Elson (ex Glenmark, Novimmune), Dr Susana Salgado (ex Novimmune), and Duc Tran (ex Prexton Therepeutics, Preglem, Pfizer) will join as medical, manufacturing, non-clinical development and strategic planning advisors, respectively.

“We appreciate the confidence placed in our team by a strong and well-balanced investor syndicate” said Alain Vicari, CEO and co-Founder of Calypso Biotech. “With the proceeds of the Series A and our newly recruited team of seasoned experts, we are now well positioned to advance CALY-002 towards value-creating near-term milestones”.

Source: Calypso Biotech