china
Why the relationship between BIO and WuXi went sour
Not so long ago, China's WuXi Biologics and BIO enjoyed a certain camaraderie: The CEOs of both groups shook hands and grinned in a photo posted on LinkedIn. But just a few months later, BIO and WuXi AppTec, a sister company, ended their relationship — and John Crowley, CEO of the biotechnology trade group, expressed his support for legislation that would prevent the U.S. biotech sector from collaborating with the Chinese company.
This sudden change illustrates how the biotech industry is struggling to handle quickly changing issues of national security, STAT's John Wilkerson writes. The growing tension makes it hard for industry stateside to talk with Congress about how to effectively manage relationships with Chinese companies.
This is a test for Crowley, who only recently took the helm at BIO and doesn't have a background in politics. Now, one of his main missions is a delicate one — navigating the souring relations between the U.S. and China in biotech.
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artificial intelligence
An AI tool to predict metastatic cancer's origins
It's hard to pin down the origin of a cancer's metastasis, but a new AI tool is outperforming pathologists in finding a malignancy's source, Nature writes. The deep-learning algorithm, developed by researchers at the Tianjin Medical University in China, was trained on some 30,000 images of cells found in abdominal or lung fluid from 21,000 people whose tumor of origin was known. They then tested their model on 27,000 images, and found that it had an 83% chance of accurately predicting the cancer's source. And there was a 99% chance that the tool's guess was in its top three predictions. When studying 500 images, the AI tool was better than human pathologists in guessing a tumor's origin.
Although this is just proof-of-concept, a model like this could help reduce the number of tests a cancer patient needs to take. The origin of about 5% of all metastatic tumors can't be identified, which makes them harder to treat: A cancer cell that originated in the breast might still resemble a breast cancer cell, even if it's elsewhere in the body. Understanding the origins can help physicians tailor therapies.
cancer vaccines
Corner Therapeutics launches with $54 million
With a $54 million Series A in hand, a startup called Corner Therapeutics is launching with plans to develop vaccines for cancer, influenza, and perhaps HIV. The company was first conceived in 2019 by two Harvard-affiliated scientists and Andrew Bellinger, the current chief scientific officer of the gene editing company Verve Therapeutics. It's also being led by Spark Therapeutics co-founder and former Children's Hospital of Philadelphia CEO Steven Altschuler.
Corner's approach centers on hyper-activating the subcutaneous dendritic cells, STAT's Allison DeAngelis writes, which work as beacons at various points in the body to signal when the immune system needs to be activated. Corner hopes to dial up the dendritic cell response in order to rev up the immune system.
"That really was the major innovation that started the company: our ability to harness the power of hyperactive dendritic cells, so that we can not just provide short-term immune protection, but rather durable immunity," scientific co-founder Jonathan Kagan told STAT. "The difference there is really the difference between five-year survival rate discussions with cancer versus cures."
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The newsletter yesterday incorrectly stated that the FDA has already agreed to expedite review of Zepbound in obstructive sleep apnea. It should have said that the FDA has granted fast-track designation to Zepbound in sleep apnea, a signal that the agency considers the disease to be serious enough to potentially warrant an expedited review.
The newsletter also incorrectly described Cullinan Therapeutics as a cell therapy company; it is an oncology company. Cullinan is developing a CD19xCD3 T cell engager called CLN-978 to treat systemic lupus erythematous.
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