Agenus Inc. is a Lexington, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company focused on immunotherapy including immuno-oncology, a field that uses the immune system to control or cure cancer. The company is developing checkpoint modulators (CPMs), patient-specific anti-cancer vaccines, and adjuvants desugned for use with various vaccines. CPM development is a particularly fast-moving field, since early products have produced unprecedented clinical benefits for patients.
Lintuzumab (SGN-33) is a humanized monoclonal antibody used in the treatment of cancer. The drug had been developed by Seattle Genetics as a treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a condition which results in the deaths of 9,000 people a year in the United States. Lintuzumab targets the CD33 protein, which is expressed in AML and other myeloproliferative diseases, but does not appear in abundance on normal cells.
Amonafide was a drug that was being studied in the treatment of cancer. It belongs to a novel family of chemotherapeutic drugs called Naphthalimides and is a potential topoisomerase inhibitor and DNA intercalator.
CancerVax was an American pharmaceutical company founded in 1998 by Donald Morton. The company sought to develop a vaccine for cancer, and had candidates for melanoma reach phase III clinical trials. When those trials proved unsuccessful in 2005, the company soon underwent a reverse takeover with Micromet.
Sapacitabine is a chemotherapeutic drug developed by US biotechnology firm Cyclacel currently undergoing clinical trials against leukemia.
ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was an American oncology company, now part of Takeda Oncology, which was founded in 1991 by Harvey J. Berger, M.D. and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ARIAD engaged in the discovery, development, and commercialization of medicines for cancer patients.
Cellectis is a French biopharmaceutical company. It develops genome-edited chimeric antigen receptor T-cell technologies for cancer immunotherapy. It has offices in Paris, New York City, and Raleigh, North Carolina.
GlobeImmune, Inc. is a clinical-stage public biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Louisville, Colorado, that develops therapeutic vaccines to treat cancer and infectious diseases. As of August 2014, the company had no marketed products. GlobeImmune’s therapeutic vaccines are developed on the company’s Tarmogen immunotherapy platform. Tarmogens are made from genetically modified yeast that express one or more disease-associated antigens. Tarmogens activate T cells to specifically target and eliminate diseased cells with the same target antigen.
Seagen Inc. is an American biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing innovative, empowered monoclonal antibody-based therapies for the treatment of cancer. The company, headquartered in Bothell, Washington, is the industry leader in antibody-drug conjugates or ADCs, a technology designed to harness the targeting ability of monoclonal antibodies to deliver cell-killing agents directly to cancer cells. Antibody-drug conjugates are intended to spare non-targeted cells and thus reduce many of the toxic effects of traditional chemotherapy, while potentially enhancing antitumor activity.
Bavarian Nordic A/S is a fully integrated biotechnology company focused on the development, manufacturing and commercialization of vaccines for infectious diseases and cancer immunotherapies. The company is headquartered in Hellerup, Denmark, with a manufacturing facility in Kvistgård, and an additional site in Hørsholm. The company has a research and development facility in Martinsried, Germany, and offices in Zug, Switzerland, and Morrisville, North Carolina. The company uses viral vectors in its research and development.
Prescient Therapeutics Ltd is a clinical stage oncology company. The company is focused on the development of a universal CAR-T platform (OmniCAR), enhanced CAR-T cell manufacturing & function (CellPryme) and on two small molecule drug targeted therapies.
Bemcentinib, also known as BGB324 or R428, is an experimental oral small molecule that is an inhibitor of AXL kinase. Bemcentinib was licensed from Rigel Pharmaceuticals by BerGenBio and currently undergoing six Phase II trials in various solid and hematological tumors as monotherapy and in combination with immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapeutics.
Mustang Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company founded in 2015 and headquartered in Worcester, MA, U.S. Operating as a partner company of Fortress Biotech, Mustang Bio develops CAR-T immunotherapies and gene therapies for multiple diseases, including hematologic cancers, solid tumors, and X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID).
bluebird bio, Inc., based in Somerville, Massachusetts, is a biotechnology company that develops gene therapies for severe genetic disorders.
Cel-Sci Corporation, is a biotechnology company that tests drugs for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases through the research and development of immunotherapy products.
GEMoaB is a biopharmaceutical company based in Dresden/Germany. The company has a broad pipeline of next generation immunotherapy product candidates for the treatment of advanced blood cancers and solid tumours in pre-clinical and clinical development. The company was founded in 2011 by the two university professors Gerhard Ehninger and Michael Bachmann.
Transgene S.A. is a French biotechnology company founded in 1979. It is based in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, near Strasbourg, and develops and manufactures immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
Bob Löwenberg is a clinical hematologist/investigator. He is Professor of Hematology at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
