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STAT+: The ADC hot streak continues: J&J to buy cancer drug developer Ambrx Biopharma

STAT

Johnson & Johnson said Monday that it would purchase Ambrx Biopharma for nearly $2 billion, picking up a company specializing in targeted chemotherapy treatments — one of the hottest areas of cancer drug development.     The deal, disclosed as the biopharma field marked the first day of the annual J.P.

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STAT+: Merck, Daiichi Sankyo to partner on targeted chemotherapy drugs in deal worth up to $22 billion

STAT

MADRID — Merck is paying billions of dollars to partner with Daiichi Sankyo on a series of cancer drugs, underscoring the excitement around targeted chemotherapy treatments.   billion more is on the table depending on the success of the drugs in development. billion over the next two years.

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STAT+: Hair loss is one of the most hated chemotherapy side effects. A new biotech hopes to prevent it

STAT

The chemotherapy Christine Ko was prescribed for her breast cancer is pretty much a guarantee for losing your hair. The company is currently developing an antibody that might reliably protect the head’s hair follicles from chemotherapy damage — if it works. But, to her, it wasn’t much of an option.

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STAT+: Jazz Pharmaceuticals to acquire Chimerix and its experimental brain cancer drug

STAT

It responds poorly to chemotherapy and is usually driven by a mutation that can’t be drugged with traditional approaches.   Chimerix’s drug, known as dordaviprone, isn’t a cure. It often wraps itself around a patient’s brain stem, preventing surgeons from safely excising it.

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STAT+: U.K. charities give $36 million to start new drugs for childhood tumors 

STAT

For three decades, adults have benefited from a revolution in oncology treatment, as immunotherapies and targeted drugs have joined or replaced older, blunter tools like chemotherapy and radiation.    Children have been less fortunate. 

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STAT+: Incyte’s checkpoint inhibitor staves off disease progression in anal cancer trial

STAT

  The Phase 3 trial tested the PD-1 targeting antibody retifanlimab in combination with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone in patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal. Retifanlimab was developed by Incyte and is approved as Zynyz in Merkel cell carcinoma.

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STAT+: Roche drug slashes recurrence, death risk in lung cancer that afflicts younger patients

STAT

MADRID — A Roche drug lowered the risk of recurrence or death by 76% versus chemotherapy for patients with a type of early non-small cell lung cancer, according to data from a Phase 3 trial presented Saturday. The standard treatment after surgery for these patients is chemotherapy.