Antigen Express on Cancer Immunotherapy and Peptides

In today's featured interview from TIDES 2014, Eric von Hofe, Ph.D., President, Antigen Express, Inc. discusses peptides, cancer immunotherapy, peptide vaccines, and his experience at the TIDES 2014 event. He states that peptides constitute the minimum unit required to generate in response to solid advantages when developing therapeutic materials and that peptides “rev-up” the immune system to go out to be specific canto cells. Do you want to learn more? Watch this interview:


TIDES 2015 will take place May 3-6, 2015 in San Diego, California.  At this year's event, we're offering two days of content focusing on Peptide Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls and Peptide Discovery, Preclinical and Clinical featuring insights from companies such as PolyPeptide Group, Amgen, NOXXON Pharma, Zealand Pharma and more. For more this year's program by downloading the agenda.  As a reader of this blog, when you register to join us and mention code XB15180BLOG, you can save 20% off standard rates.

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Application Space for Peptides

In today's featured interview from TIDES 2014, Patrick C. Reid, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, PeptiDream, Inc of Japan talks about how a lot of work involving peptides are not published yet. That kind if info is obtained in this type of conference. He also states that the therapeutic side has commercial potential, application space for peptides are limitless, and that he does not see any disease that can’t be therapeutically targeted with peptides. He expects peptides to represent against therapeutic modality. To learn more, watch the interview here:


TIDES 2015 will take place May 3-6, 2015 in San Diego, California.  This year, Ravi S. Harapanhalli, Ph.D., Vice President, Technical, PAREXEL International and Former Branch Chief, Office of New Drug Quality Assessment, US FDA, will be on hand to present Strategies and Challenges in the Development of Oligonucleotide and Peptide Drugs: Perspectives on DrugDevice Combinations and Drug Product.  For more information about this session and the rest of the program, download the agenda.  As a reader of this blog, when you register to join us and mention code XB15180BLOG, you can save 20% off standard rates.

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[Video] ALN-TTR Programs for Transthyretin Amyloidosis

In today's featured presentation from TIDES 2014, Jared A. Gollob, M.D., Vice President of Clinical Research at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. presents how explains how Transthyretin Amyloidosis is formed and how it develops throughout the body.  Transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis is caused by the deposition of liver-derived mutant and/or wild-type TTR in peripheral nerves, GI tract and the heart. Patisiran (ALN-TTR02), which is being developed for familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy (FAP), is a systemically administered lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulation of a small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting wild-type and all mutant forms of TTR that is currently in Phase 3. ALN-TTRsc, which is being developed to treat familial amyloidotic cardiomyopathy (FAC), is a subcutaneously administered N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc)-conjugated siRNA also targeting all forms of TTR that is currently in Phase 2. This presentation will review the clinical results to date with both patisiran and ALN-TTRsc. To learn more, watch the actual presentation:


TIDES 2015 will take place May 3-6, 2015 in San Diego, California.  This year, Ravi S. Harapanhalli, Ph.D., Vice President, Technical, PAREXEL International and Former Branch Chief, Office of New Drug Quality Assessment, US FDA, will be on hand to present Strategies and Challenges in the Development of Oligonucleotide and Peptide Drugs: Perspectives on DrugDevice Combinations and Drug Product.  For more information about this session and the rest of the program, download the agenda.  As a reader of this blog, when you register to join us and mention code XB15180BLOG, you can save 20% off standard rates.

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[Video] TIDES: AZD9150 and its Effect on Tumors

In today's featured interview from TIDES 2014, David C. Blakey, Ph.D., the Chief Scientist of Oncology iMED at AstraZeneca discusses the next generation of antisense molecules, AZD9150 and its effect on tumors and why TIDES is a great place to be for the industry. He also talks about bigger traction, which tackle lower uptake tissues and a combination of both peptides and nucleotides. To learn more, watch this interview:



This year at TIDES 2015, AstraZeneca's Regina Fritsche-Danielson, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Senior Director and Head of Bioscience Heart Failure Department will present Modified mRNA as a Potential Therapeutic for Patients with Cardiovascular Disease.  For more information on this session and the rest of the program, download the agenda.  As a reader of this blog, when you register to join us and mention code XB15180BLOG, you can save 20% off the standard rate.

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[Video] Breakthrough Status: Are You Ready?

In today's featured presentation from TIDES 2014, Jeffrey Baker, Ph.D., Deputy Director, Office of Biotechnology Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration talks about FDA SIA (Safety and Innovation Act). He presents a rundown of this act and talks about NDAs (Non-disclosure agreement), and BLAs (Biologics License Applications). Baker states that FDA SIA has made available a pathway for rapid approval of drugs critical to public health, however companies need to be prepared to manufacture and meet patient needs. Are you ready? For details, watch the presentation:



TIDES 2015 will take place May 3-6, 2015 in San Diego, California.  This year, Ravi S. Harapanhalli, Ph.D., Vice President, Technical, PAREXEL International and Former Branch Chief, Office of New Drug Quality Assessment, US FDA, will be on hand to present Progress in Advancement of RNAi Therapeutics.  For more information about this session and the rest of the program, download the agenda.  As a reader of this blog, when you register to join us and mention code XB15180BLOG, you can save 20% off standard rates.

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How has the field of cancer immunotherapy in general advanced over the last view years?

Next week, we're hosting the TIDES 2014 Event.  Over the next few days, we'll be going back and looking at some of the one on one interviews we conducted with our speakers.  We'll start out by looking at the conversation we had with Eric Von Hofe, President of Antigen Express.

Today, Eric answers the question:
How has the field of cancer immunotherapy in general advanced over the last view years?

His answer:
It has had a really difficult time, up until the approval of Provans for prostate cancer and Yervoy for melanoma a couple of years ago.

For the first ten years of this century, there were lots of failures in the clinic and, simply, there were a lot of things that people needed to learn in the clinic in regards to how to use these compounds. So, while most therapeutic agents produce their effects relatively quickly, either they see tumors shrinking after hemotherapeutic agents given, which is good, or it doesn’t, which is bad. Even if therapeutic agents work differently --- and the problem there is that it can take up to eight months to a year to really get the patient’s immune system revved up and able to recognize the tumor. So, that’s really a big difference. Once people started taking that into consideration in the clinic, they started seeing many more encouraging results.

The upshot of all that is that most people now agree that probably within the next ten years, immunotherapy will constitute one of the mainstays of cancer therapy. So, it is an exciting time; people are very encouraged by it.

Read Dr. Von Hofe's full interview here.

Dr. Von Hofe will present the case study Peptide-Based Vaccines in the New Era of Cancer Immunotherapy on Tuesday, May 13.  For more information on his presentation and the rest of the program, download the agenda.  As a reader of this blog, when you register to join us May 12-15 in Providence, Rhode Island, you're eligible to save 20% off the standard rate!  Simply register to join us and mention priority code XB14180BLOG.  Have any questions?  Email Jennifer Pereira.

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See who is attending TIDES

Will you be joining these confirmed colleagues at IBC’s 16th Annual TIDES meeting, taking place May 12-15 2014 in Providence, Rhode Island?

Drive your discovery and manufacturing programs forward at TIDES by hearing a world-class group of speakers provide you with the latest science, technology and development updates.

Benchmark your current portfolio by hearing new reports on leading therapeutic candidates in development from Amgen, GSK, Teva, Alnylam, Ophthotech, AstraZeneca and Giuliani SpA. Also, ensure regulatory success by hearing FDA speaker Jeffrey Baker provide insight on how to prepare for the FDA Safety and Innovation Act.

Plus, be the first to access novel technologies and cutting-edge science in our poster and exhibit hall, featuring over 75 exhibitors and 30 peer-submitted posters.

Keynote Speakers Provide Cutting-Edge Science to Accelerate Your Current Project

• Peptide R&D: Advances and Opportunities Nader Fotouhi, Ph.D., Vice President, Head of Discovery Technologies, Hoffmann-La Roche

• Pharmaceutical Protein and Peptide Engineering Lars F. Iversen, Ph.D., Corporate Vice President, Diabetes Protein Engineering, Novo Nordisk, Denmark

• Aptamer Nanotechnology for Therapeutic Nanoparticles Omid Farokhzad, M.D., Associate Professor; Director, Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biomaterials, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

• Peptide-Based Vaccines in the New Era of Cancer Immunotherapy Eric von Hofe, Ph.D., President, Antigen Express, Inc.

• PeptiDream: From Bench to IPO Patrick C. Reid, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, PeptiDream Inc., Japan and U.S.A.

To learn more, download our brochure.

Register with code XB14180BLOG to receive 20% off of the standard rate. If you have questions about the event, feel free to contact our group manager, Kate Devery (Kdevery@iirusa.com), or visit our webpage. We look forward to seeing you May 12-15 in Providence, RI!

Cheers,
The TIDES Team

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Download the TIDES podcast featuring Gregory Penner

Today's podcast features Gregory Penner, President and CEO of NeoVentures Biotechnology. Penner discussed the ELISA format, applying aptamers to diagnostics and generation sequencing. Check out the hightlights from the podcast below:

What are the key constraints to applying aptamers in an ELISA format?
Gregory: Really, you can’t just plug aptamers in where antibodies have been used. There are some functional differences. One of the key differences is that aptamers really tend to fold down on plastic surfaces. So, we have to immobilize the aptamers differently. We tend to immobilize them onto proteins on surfaces and then they fold down much less. It’s also a matter of what buffers you use.

Why have there not been more aptamer-based diagnostic products commercialized?

Gregory: We get asked this question a lot. I think the fairest answer to that is that there have been general patent positions that only expired two or three years ago now. These are general patents on the concept of using aptamers as ligands. Now those have expired so the field has opened to develop diagnostics. There is room for specific patent applications, as well. So, there is space closing in as more specific things get applied. But that has been the key reason. Not a technical reason, but more of a legal one.

Download the full podcast.

Want to hear more from NeoVentures Biotechnology? Join Gregory May 12-15 in Rhode Island at IBC's 16th Annual TIDES event. To view our full program, download our agenda. Register with priority code XB14180BLOG to save 20% off of the standard rate. We hope to see you this May!

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Accelerate Your Oligos and Peptides to Market at TIDES

Gain the information and contacts you need to accelerate your therapeutic pipeline to market at IBC's 16th Annual TIDES meeting, taking place May 12-15, 2014 in Providence, Rhode Island.

TIDES offers more than 100 speaker presentations across four concurrent tracks, providing you with the latest science, technologies and regulatory expectations to advance your research, development and process chemistry projects forward.

More than 200 of your colleagues have already confirmed attendance to this year's event - don't miss your chance to forge scientific and business partnerships with this global audience of oligo and peptide researchers and manufacturers.

To learn more, view our full agenda.

Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Discovery Track

• Push your development pipeline forward by hearing preclinical and clinical updates on current siRNA, miRNA, aptamer, LNA and antisense projects.
• Design oligonucleotides with better drug-like properties by learning about new chemistries and chemical modifications to improve your molecules.
• Explore mechanisms of oligonucleotide delivery and find new solutions to improve oligonucleotide targeting and delivery.

Peptide Discovery and Development Track

• Create a competitive advantage for your peptide by learning how leaders are exploiting new and difficult targets with novel peptide-like scaffolds and structures.
• Improve peptide targeting efforts by hearing the latest advances in cell penetrating peptides, intraceullular delivery and endosomal escape.
• Benchmark your current development efforts by hearing updates on leading peptide candidates including Albiglutide, Velcalcetide, and ALN-TTR programs.

Register with code XB14180BLOG to receive 20% off of the standard rate. If you have questions about the event, feel free to contact our group manager, Kate Devery (Kdevery@iirusa.com), or visit our webpage.

We look forward to seeing you May 12-15 in Providence, RI!

Cheers,
The TIDES Team

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Download the TIDES podcast featuring Peter Timmerman

Today's podcast features Peter Timmerman, Chief Scientific Office, Pepscan Therapeutics. Timmerman discussed the development of VEGF, a synthetic peptide-based vaccine. Check out the highlights below:


What is the main topic of your lecture at the TIDES Symposium?  
Peter: Well, the topic of my lecture at the TIDES Symposium will be, “Development of a Synthetic Peptide-Based Vaccine Against the Growth Factor of Vascular and Endothelial Growth Factor”. It’s called, shortly, VEGF.

What does the vaccine do?

Peter: Well, what the vaccine should do is it should generate avastin-like antibodies into the patient’s body. So, in contrast to the treatment with Avastin in which people are injected with a monoclonal antibody that is generated in the lab – so outside the body – the vaccine is not an antibody itself, but it is a peptide mimic of the hormone and upon injection into the patient, it should trigger the immune system of the patient itself to start producing avastin-like antibodies.

Download the full podcast. 

Want to hear more? Join Peter May 12-15 in Rhode Island at IBC's 16th Annual TIDES event. To view our full program, download our agenda. Register with priority code XB14180BLOG to save 20% off of the standard rate. We hope to see you this May!

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Download the TIDES Podcast featuring Bertha deLanda

Today's podcast features Bertha deLanda from the Research Compliant Office at Stanford University. She currently serves as an IRB, SCRO, Panel Manager and Administrative Support for the Ethics Review Board that oversees both human subject and stem cell research at the University. deLanda discussed the IRB, the challenges and issues regarding the consenting process, and genetic research. Check out our highlights below:

Your discussion is going to be centered around the challenges of informed consents as it relates to genetic research specifically. What do you believe is a main challenge with this process?

Bertha: Genetic research is a quickly evolving branch of science that continues to morph depending on new discoveries, applications and the relevance in the field of medical discoveries. But applying the Federal Regulations, which evolve very slowly to this new technology, becomes almost a retrospective, knee-jerk reaction. That ends up affecting the progress of the study, as well as the rights of the human subjects involved.

What about the issue of returning research results? How is this topic relevant to current day researchers?

Bertha: This issue really manifested itself as everyone tried to do the right thing. But the question remains – what do you do with data that you discover during the scope of the research that provides, unwittingly, information that is useful or medically relevant to the subjects involved in the study? Are you legally obligated to disclose this information?

Download the full podcast.

Want to hear more? Join Bertha May 12-15 in Rhode Island at IBC's 16th Annual TIDES event. To view our full program, download our agenda. Register with priority code XB14180BLOG to save 20% off of the standard rate. We hope to see you this May!

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Download the TIDES Podcast featuring: Eric von Hofe

Today's podcast features Eric von Hofe, President of Antigen Express. von Hofe discussed antigen express peptides, peptides as immunotherapeutic agents, peptide technology and much more. Check out our highlights below:

How are antigen express peptides different from other peptides tried in the clinic?

Eric: The difference of antigen express technology and earlier peptides is that they are modified to specifically activate the so called CB42 cells. In the past, people simply took unmodified peptides and combined them with general immune stimulating agents called Adjuvants. They frequently have non-specific effects. Ours have a very simple modification that helps them to very potently and specifically activate CB42 cells.


What other applications are there for antigen express peptide technology?

Eric: So the first thing is that there are lots of cancer-related targets that we can go over besides HER2. So, we’ve pre-clinically looked at a lot of compounds, like HPV related cancers. So, these are some cervical, some neck cancers also some melanoma targets. So, it’s essentially using the exact same technology platform we’ve used for our most advanced compounds. That can be applied to a variety of other cancer targets, as well. So, a variety of other ones that we’re looking at.

Download the full Podcast

Want to hear more from Antigen Express? Join Eric May 12-15 in Rhode Island at IBC's 16th Annual TIDES event.To view our full program, download our agenda. Register with priority code XB14180BLOG to save 20% off of the standard rate. We hope to see you this May!

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TIDES: The Industry's Premier Manufacturing, Networking and Business Event

Whether your focus is in oligonucleotide or peptide manufacturing, TIDES is the premier event to help you accelerate your process development efforts, understand regulatory expectations, and network with key industry leaders to move your business forward. Here are some of the manufacturing program highlights on this year's TIDES program:

Implement New Process Validation Guidelines

• Hear US Pharmacopeia's perspective on critical quality attributes for peptide APIs, with a focus on control strategies, regulatory expectations and compendial requirements for peptide APIs in USA and Europe.

• Attend Agilent Technologies, NASD's case study presentation demonstrating the continuous verification approach to process validation for an oligonucleotide, following the recent ICH and FDA guidances. Hear how they identified processing issues prior to process validation by implementing an early trending of processing parameters.

• In a can’t miss audience interactive panel discussion, ask your questions about the challenges and benefits that industry leaders are experiencing from the recent changes in process validation approaches, with moderator Paul McCormac of Pfizer and panelists representing FDA, Agilent, Isis, Prosensa and BfArM Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (Germany's regulatory agency).

Accelerate Your Process Development Efforts

• Understand alternatives to lyophilization by hearing new reports from Pfizer and Lonza.

• Increase final yield, improve process efficiency and reduce manufacturing costs by hearing Bachem's case study on process development through scale-up approaches for Davunetide.

• Learn how Isis utilizes its large body of platform knowledge to improve their process development and validation approaches.

• Hear about the challenges encountered during Bachem's production of bicyclic peptides.

Overcome Complicated Formulation and Delivery Challenges

• Get an unsurpassed update on formulation and delivery with a full day of presentations from Merck, Xeris, Amylin, Zosano, Peptisyntha, Informulate and Dicerna.

• Discover how Merck analyzes the physicochemical and biophysical characteristics of potential peptide drug candidates to support formulation and development risks to support preclinical and clinical studies.

• Hear the regulator’s view on CMC Challenges of Novel Delivery Systems in a Strategy Discussion Forum led by Dr. René Thürmer, Ph.D., Deputy Head Unit Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, BfArM - Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices, Germany.

Efficiently Scale-Up Manufacturing

• Hear how industry leaders are thinking outside of the box for novel strategies to scale-up oligonucleotides and peptides during our panel discussion, with panelists representing Pfizer, Alnylam, PolyPeptide Group, Isis, Lonza and Ophthotech.

Understand Conjugation Technology to Advance Your Therapeutics

• Learn how Agilent's novel drug delivery and cleavable linker technology is being used to advance therapeutic oligonucleotide efforts.

• Attend a strategy discussion forum covering key objectives necessary for successful "tide" conjugation development, with focuses on advantages and limitations of various approaches and lessons learned from commercial successes.


To learn more, download our brochure.

Register with code XB14180BLOG to save 20% off of the standard rate: . If you have questions about the event, feel free to contact our group manager, Kate Devery (Kdevery@iirusa.com), or visit our webpage.

We look forward to seeing you May 12-15 in Providence, RI!

Cheers,
The TIDES Team

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