Bio Platforms
TOLREMO Therapeutics Receives Two FDA Fast Track Designations
TOLREMO therapeutics AG recently announced its lead candidate, TT125-802, received two Fast Track designations from the US FDA for the treatment of non-small cell lung…
Wugen Secures $115 Million to Advance Pivotal Study of First-in-Class Allogeneic CAR-T Therapy
Wugen, Inc. recently announced the closing of $115 million equity financing led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, with participation from RiverVest Venture Partners, Lightchain Capital,…
TREOS Bio Partners With Charité Berlin & Junshi Biosciences to Launch Pivotal Phase 2 Clinical Trial in Refractory MSS Colorectal Cancer
TREOS Bio Ltd. recently announced the execution of clinical collaboration agreements with Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Junshi Biosciences for the initiation of OBERTO-202, a…
MannKind Announces Expansion of United Therapeutics Collaboration for Second Inhaled Therapy
MannKind Corporation recently announced United Therapeutics Corporation has exercised its option—granted under the companies’ 2018 license and collaboration agreement—to develop a second dry powder inhalation…
Moleculin Issues New Positive AML Overall Survival Data
Moleculin Biotech, Inc. recently announced the completion of its Phase 1B/2 (MB-106) clinical trial evaluating Annamycin in combination with Cytarabine (also known as Ara-C and…
Scenic Enters License & Research Agreement With Alnylam
Scenic Biotech recently announced a license and research agreement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to leverage Scenic's Cell-Seq platform for discovering novel targets for RNAi therapeutics.…
Allarity Therapeutics Granted FDA Fast Track Designation for Stenoparib for the Treatment of Advanced Ovarian Cancer
Allarity Therapeutics, Inc. recently announced the US FDA has granted Fast Track designation to stenoparib, its investigational treatment for patients with advanced ovarian cancer. The…
Clearside Biomedical Announces Multiple Presentations on Suprachoroidal Delivery
Clearside Biomedical, Inc. recently announced its SCS delivery platform and CLS-AX program will be highlighted in multiple presentations at the 25th EURETINA Congress from September…
Newly Published Paper Unveils Breakthrough Enzyme That Expands Possibilities for Peptide Drug Discovery
A team of researchers from the University of Utah and Sethera Therapeutics has uncovered a powerful new way to build more stable and drug-like peptides,…
MannKind to Acquire scPharmaceuticals, Accelerating Revenue Growth & Emerging as a Patient-Centric Leader in Cardiometabolic & Lung Diseases
MannKind Corporation and scPharmaceuticals Inc. recently announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement for MannKind to acquire scPharmaceuticals. This proposed acquisition marks MannKind’s strategic…
Immuneering Announces Clinical Supply Agreement With Lilly to Evaluate Atebimetinib in Combination With Olomorasib
Immuneering Corporation recently announced a clinical supply agreement with Eli Lilly and Company for its second-generation KRAS G12C inhibitor, olomorasib (LY3537982). The supply agreement supports…
HCW Biologics to Showcase its Novel Second-Generation Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Identified as a Potential Gateway to a Multi-Billion Dollar Market
HCW Biologics Inc. recently announced its scientists have successfully developed second-generation, pembrolizumab-based immunotherapeutics against solid tumors, particularly for pancreatic and ovarian cancer, using its novel…
Larkspur Biosciences Announces Discovery of a First-in-Class Degrader of the Lipid Kinase PIP4K2C for the Treatment of Microsatellite Stable Colorectal Cancer
Larkspur Biosciences recently announced the discovery of LRK-4189, a first-in-class degrader of the lipid kinase PIP4K2C for the treatment of microsatellite stable (MSS) colorectal cancer…
Advanz Pharma & Alvotech Receive European Approval for Mynzepli, Biosimilar to Eylea
Alvotech and Advanz Pharma Holdco Limited recently announced the European Commission has approved Mynzepli as a biosimilar to Eyle (aflibercept), in a pre-filled syringe and…
Cube Biotech & X-Chem Partner to Enable DNA-Encoded Library Screening of NativeMP-Stabilized Membrane Proteins
Cube Biotech and X-Chem recently announce the successful conclusion of Project DEL-MP, a collaborative initiative demonstrating that copolymer-stabilized membrane proteins are not only suitable for DEL…
Medicus Pharma Provides Update on D-MNA Clinical Development Program for the Treatment of Basal Cell Carcinoma
Medicus Pharma Ltd. recently announced, following the acceptance of the Type C meeting request by the USFDA, it has submitted its queries in writing and…
Trethera Awarded $3-Million NIH Grant to Advance First-In-Class Drug for the Treatment of Lupus
Trethera Corporation recently announced it has been awarded a $3-million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH). The award…
BioMed X & Novo Nordisk Launch New Collaboration in Oral Peptide Drug Delivery
BioMed X recently announced the launch of a new collaboration with Novo Nordisk, a leading global healthcare company headquartered in Denmark. This partnership aims to…
Memo Therapeutics Publishes Phase 1 Study for Neutralizing Antibody Targeting BKPyV Infection in Clinical & Translational Science
Memo Therapeutics AG has published Phase 1 clinical data in Clinical and Translational Science, highlighting the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics (PK) of its lead clinical…
Rein Therapeutics Wins Approval to Launch Phase 2 Clinical Trial of LTI-03 in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Rein Therapeutics recently announced the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has authorized the company to initiate its Phase 2 RENEW clinical trial…
What are Bio Platforms?
Platforms (or asset-independent technologies to capture all kinds of capabilities that can be leveraged across many different drug candidate assets rather than just discovery tools that the term ‘platform’ immediately brings to mind) are ubiquitous in modern pharma. They are the product of an arms race, to secure access to the best capabilities in key areas.
Platform technologies are considered a valuable tool to improve efficiency and quality in drug product development. The basic idea is that a platform, in combination with a risk-based approach, is the most systematic method to leverage prior knowledge for a given new molecule. Furthermore, such a platform enables a continuous improvement by adding data for every new molecule developed by this approach, increasing the robustness of the platform.
But it has often been said that access to the latest technological platforms to aid efficient drug discovery and development is limited to Big Pharma, which can more easily justify the costs of creating and operating these platforms.
Benefits of Bio Platforms
Platform technologies have the ability to radically improve upon current products and generate completely novel products. In this sense, they open up new arenas for drug discovery and development, potentially increasing the number of therapeutic options for patients. Once a single compound or therapeutic has been generated and demonstrates a clinical benefit in patients, it is more likely this platform technology can successfully be applied to other therapeutic areas, derisking future compounds/products.
Complex drugs by their very nature are challenging and costly to manufacture. This, in turn, translates into higher costs for patients and other payers. In order to provide safe and effective therapies at a reasonable price, it is necessary for the industry to develop manufacturing technologies that reduce costs and provide a consistent product. While the initial investment may be larger, manufacturing costs will be lower over time as the manufacturing process is solidified.
Scale and Investment of Bio Platforms
Despite the initial upfront costs, platform technologies inevitably provide pragmatic solutions to production challenges, while yielding safer and more effective therapeutic products. It has often been said that one of the key features that distinguishes “Big Pharma” from biotech is access to the latest technological platforms to aid efficient drug discovery and development.
These platforms range from vast chemical libraries, ultra-high throughput screening and huge genetic databases in discovery, to predictive toxicology platforms, cutting-edge ‘omics’ and even deep-seated knowledge of particular therapeutic areas in development. All these platforms have two things in common: They can be used on any (or many) development candidate assets, and they cost huge sums to establish in the first place, and in a few cases each time they are used as well. Hence their restriction to the largest pharmaceutical companies (and a few of the so-called “big biotechs” that are, in many ways, indistinguishable from the old-guard pharma).
Only when you have hundreds of active projects can you justify the cost of creating and operating these platforms. Or so the mantra goes. It is access to these platforms that keeps the big companies ahead in the race to discover and develop the best medicines (or at least counterbalance the disadvantages of being large and slow-moving, depending on your point of view). But is that just an assertion? How much evidence is there to support the proposition that the efficiency gains due to these platforms outstrips the cost of creating and maintaining them?
Keeping these technologies “cutting edge” has become so expensive that increasingly we hear pharma companies talking of “pre-competitive” approaches to develop the next generation. A group of companies might develop a platform capability they then share. The principle goal of such initiatives is to access even grander and more expensive tools than individual companies could afford, rather than to dramatically cut costs (although sharing platforms rather than developing the same thing in parallel in each silo should at least keep a lid on rising costs).