Conference Edition
| Dec. 5, 2018
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Editor's Note
There's nothing like an American Society of Hematology event to get the blood pumping, and this year's annual meeting was no exception.
Some key takeaways: First generation CAR-T therapies demonstrated lasting efficacy for some, while a newer wave offered impressive responses in hard-to-treat cancers. Durability will be a focus with these therapies moving forward, and a potential differentiator as the market matures.
Competition may also come from bispecifics and antibody drug conjugates, two increasingly popular areas of cancer drug development. At least in the near-term, however, experts see places at the table for a variety of treatment options.
And on a larger scale, reimbursement and clinical trial design will continue to factor into how the blood disorder space evolves.
We hope you enjoy this collection of our biggest stories from ASH. Of course, we'd love to hear from you too. Please share any thoughts or feedback via email. Thanks for reading!
Jacob
Bell
Reporter, BioPharma Dive
E-mail
Overheard at the show
"Every one of today's therapies for malignant hematological disease is available because of a successful clinical trial, but we need to bring these trials up-to-date ... Improving clinical trial design will help prioritize good drugs for more testing."
– Ned Sharpless, Director of the National Cancer Institute
Event coverage
Deep Dive
Like many a medical meeting, ASH showcased data that — while promising — also offers as many questions as answers.
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Deep Dive
The therapies work to guide tumor-fighting immune cells to target cancerous invaders. Research at ASH suggests they could be another avenue of attack in immuno-oncology.
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Looming over clinical victories seen at ASH was a problematic question: How exactly will health systems pay for these powerful yet pricey therapies?
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Changes made by the biotech to its Lentiglobin treatment look to be bearing fruit, but a new case of myelodysplasia syndrome has raised old concerns.
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Though strong, updated data on LCAR-B38M was a notch below the almost unbelievable efficacy and safety the biotech showed at ASCO last year.
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Targeted therapies have made large strides across a number of cancer types and are changing how clinical trials are conducted in the process, the head of the National Cancer Institute told BioPharma Dive.
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In an interview, Novartis' cell and gene therapy head said the pharma's made "significant progress" addressing issues that have hampered Kymriah's roll-out.
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At ASH, updated results from the Believe and Medalist studies showcased the drug in beta-thalassemia and myelodysplastic syndromes.
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Phase 1 data on a dozen patients hint that bb21217 may deliver the efficacy and persistence that Bluebird and partner Celgene have been vying for.
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Parting thought
At ASH, we focused on news critical to companies we cover regularly. Just as important, though, is research that extends beyond the bounds of industry, such as a study finding hydroxyurea feasible and safe for children in sub-Saharan Africa or a test of how well machine learning can predict the prognosis for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes.
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