Drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb said Monday it has added Yale Cancer Center to its International Immuno-Oncology Network (II-ON), a collaboration between the company and leading cancer research centers to advance drugs that use the body’s immune system to fight tumors.
The goal is to move research findings into clinical trials that could eventually lead to better survival rates across many types of cancers, said Yale and BMS, maker of the immunotherapy drug Opdivo.
“By adding Yale Cancer Center to the network, we are strengthening our collective ability to address essential scientific questions and advance clinical discovery, which we hope will eventually translate to meaningful outcomes for patients,” said Nils Lonberg, head of Oncology Biology Discovery at BMS.
Yale joins 15 cancer research institutions across North America, Europe, Japan and Australia, including the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Columbia University Medical Center and the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Founded in 2012, the network is focused on understanding resistance to immunotherapy, identifying new patients likely to benefit and exploring combination therapies to improve success rates, said the drugmaker.
In other news, New Haven biotech Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc., days after saying it would cut 20 percent of its workforce in a restructuring aimed at saving $10 million this year, announced good news in its push to get its kidney drug ACH-4471 approved in Europe.
Achillion said Monday the European Medicines Agency has issued a positive opinion toward “orphan status” for the drug to treat the rare kidney disease C3 glomerulopathy (C3G).
The designation, given to promising drugs for life-threatening or debilitating conditions that affect no more than five in 10,000 in the EU, would qualify Achillion for certain incentives, including the right to market the drug exclusively in the union for 10 years.
The opinion now goes to the European Commission for a final decision.
Achillion’s stock rose 15.4 percent to close at $3.41 a share Monday after falling below $3 a share following the layoff announcement last week.
Meanwhile, New Haven-based Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Company Ltd. last week announced an exclusive licensing deal with a subsidiary of New Jersey-based Catalent Inc. to use its Zydis ODT (orally disintegrating tablet) fast-dissolving formula for Biohaven’s migraine drug rimegepant.
“Fast-dissolve formulations are particularly well-suited for people with migraine,” said Biohaven CEO Dr. Vlad Coric, noting they need to get the drug in their system quickly and can suffer from aversion to food or liquids during attacks.
“The Zydis ODT formulation uniquely addresses this issue by allowing such patients to take a fast-dissolving tablet without water,” he said.
Terms of the deal with Catalent U.K. Swindon Zydis Limited were not disclosed.
Part of a new class of drugs known as CGRP receptor antagonists, rimegepant works to stop migraines by blocking a brain chemical that transmits pain.
Natalie Missakian can be reached at news@newhavenbiz.com
