Perspectives

Let us begin with the evolution of cancer therapy in a few clauses (and a long Proustian sentence and paragraph): killing the tumor with small molecules (first chemotherapy, then targeted agents like kinase inhibitors, and ultimately via targeting of the specific genetic aberrations in a given patient employing precision medicine); killing the tumor with antibodies of increasing complexity (e.g., naked antibodies, then antibody-drug conjugates, and more recently bispecifics); modulating the tumor microenvironment (i.e., primarily the immune cells in the TME) to enable their recognizing and attacking (that is, killing), the tumor, right now using T-cell directed checkpoint inhibitors to alleviate the immunosuppression caused by the cancer; and perhaps the hottest area in Oncology lately (and for our Oncology Practice) being the approach of moving to ex vivo manipulation/bio-engineering of each patient's own immune cells exogenously, then introducing them back into the patient to kill the tumor (e.g., Adoptive Cell Therapy, or ACT, of which autologous CAR-T products are the first generation of products) . The next generation of ACT is of course trying to make it "off-the-shelf" with allogeneic immune cells.

Dr. David Schwartz will be presenting at the IADC 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting on a panel titled The Use of Genetic Testing in the Courtroom.

According to FDA regulation, conventional food and dietary supplements are allowed to make three categories of claims: health claims, nutrient content claims, and structure/function claims.

With much talk of a changed pharma and biotech market landscape, we ask Jon Bircher, Chief Commercial Officer of Cello Health, and Carl Engleman, Vice President at Cello Health Consulting, now Lumanity for their thoughts on tackling the challenges of asset and brand planning against the backdrop of such an uncertain future.