Presenting Companies
June 2022 Conference
Aravive, Inc., is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on developing new therapies that target important survival pathways for both solid tumors as well as hematologic malignancies. Our primary therapeutic focus is the GAS6-AXL pathway, where AXL receptor signaling plays a critical role in multiple types of malignancies by promoting metastasis and cancer cell survival. Our technology, originated in the laboratories of Drs. Amato Giaccia and his colleagues at Stanford University, uses genetic screening to identify critical targets for the development of therapeutic molecules for cancer therapy while sparing healthy cells. This strategy is designed to enable us to interrupt oncogenic signals and, using our high-affinity decoy receptors, outcompete cancer’s ability to grow, metastasize and acquire resistance to treatments. We believe our unique cancer therapies may hold promise as a monotherapy or in combination with other cancer treatments, augmenting the anti-tumor activity of radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immuno-therapeutics and cancer vaccines. By targeting advanced or metastatic disease, our approach has the potential to significantly improve survival rates while simultaneously reducing toxicity in cancer patients.
Biocept, Inc. is a leading commercial provider of liquid biopsy tests designed to provide physicians with clinically actionable information to improve the outcomes of patients diagnosed with cancer. The company's patented Target Selector liquid biopsy technology platform captures and analyzes tumor-associated molecular markers in both CTCs and in plasma (ctDNA). Biocept offers single biomarker tests for lung, breast, melanoma, gastric, colorectal, and prostate cancers that can be used for treatment selection and response monitoring. The company also offers tumor-specific multi-gene next-generation sequencing (NGS) panels for both lung and breast cancer. With thousands of tests performed, Biocept’s liquid biopsy platforms have demonstrated the ability to identify cancer mutations and alterations to inform physicians about a patient’s disease and therapeutic options.
Canget is a biotechnology company intended to develop novel, cancer-targeting anticancer agents. The company provides highly effective, low toxic and cancer-targeting anticancer agents for patients, enabling medical practitioners to dramatically improve patient survival time and survival rate through controlling cancer cell drug resistance and tumor relapse.
Cognos Therapeutics Inc. (Cognos) is an advanced medical device company focused on creating unique technologies to radically advance the diagnosis and treatment of neuropathic diseases including tumor-based brain and spinal cancers, degenerative cognition disorders (such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease), cerebral trauma occurrences (such as epilepsy and stroke) as well as other Central Nervous System afflictions.
Geneius is a private biopharmaceutical company run by the Former CEO of Bluebird Bio focused on the discovery and clinical development of adoptive T cell therapy products that address the treatment of cancer and infections. The company has created a good manufacturing process, or GMP, for the production of T cells from peripheral blood for infusion into the patient, allowing for manufacturing at a price of 1/10th that of traditional CAR-T. Geneius' targeted DiversiTy™ platform is a novel ex vivo approach that re-educates T cells to become responsive to multiple, previously overlooked tumor antigens. Geneius' lead product candidate, GNS-TEBV-001, is currently in preclinical testing for EBV+, NHL, gastric and nasopharyngeal cancers. Geneius also has two additional products, GNS-TGBM-002 and GNS-TPC-003, in preclinical testing for glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer, respectively. IND-Enabling Studies.
Immunicom is developing a non-drug-based cancer therapy with the potential to reduce treatment side effects, enhance therapy response rates and improve cancer patients’ quality of life – all at significantly lower costs and without the side effects and complications prevalent in existing immunotherapy approaches. Immunicom's cancer therapy has the potential to allow the body’s natural immune system to directly attack the cancer while enhancing the effects of other cancer treatments which may be used concurrently. At Immunicom we are reimagine how healing should be.
IMPACT Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of targeted anti-cancer therapeutics based on synthetic lethality. IMPACT Therapeutics has assembled one of the most comprehensive DNA damage response (DDR) global pipelines of novel drug candidates generated by in-house discovery efforts and is expanding to other novel synthetic lethality targets to broaden its pipeline. IMPACT pipeline products include PARP inhibitor (Senaparib/ IMP4297), Wee1 inhibitor (IMP7068), ATR inhibitor (IMP9064) and other novel DDR pathway inhibitors. The lead clinical program, PARP inhibitor (Senaparib/ IMP4297), is in Phase II/III studies for ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, small cell lung cancer and other indications worldwide, including China. Senaparib's preliminary clinical data demonstrated superior tolerability and wider therapeutic windows compared with other PARPi. Phase I study of Wee1 inhibitor (IMP7068) is conducted globally. ATR Inhibitor IMP9064 has received IND Clearance by the FDA to start clinical studies in the U.S. and submitted clinical application in China. Hedgehog pathway inhibitor (IMP5471) has received IND approval from NMPA to initiate clinical studies in China
Lantern Pharma, Inc. is a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing new classes of precision cancer drugs with novel mechanisms of action, and also rescuing or revitalizing abandoned or failed cancer drugs using machine learning techniques, genomic data and precision oncology trials. Lantern Pharma recognizes that the high cost and low success rates in oncology drug development largely stem from the inability to appropriately stratify patient populations prior to enrollment, and also from the inability to fully elucidate mechanisms of action that can suggest potent combinations. Our approach which leverages our RADR platform helps to provide rapid, meaningful insight to both of these central problems in oncology. Lantern is focused on accelerating personalized cancer therapy development through the use of AI and genomic-based patient stratification.
NexPlasmaGen is a developer of cold plasma delivery systems designed for personalized cancer care. The company's system specializes in developing patented cold plasma devices used for creating plasma species, produces cellular oxidative stress that kills cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue, enabling oncologists to improve patient outcomes in breast-conserving therapy, and striving to reduce radiation-related side-effects.
NKore™ is combining proprietary-cellular and protein-based diagnostics, novel AI analytics and a natural, proprietary approach to “Super Charging” allogeneic Natural Killer Cells to deploy a new era in immuno-therapeutic medicine for the treatment of cancer in patients of all ages.
OncoXome is a biotech company focusing on the interference and manipulation of cancer cell communication. Through the combination of gene therapy and its optimal delivery system, OncoXome develops a new therapeutic approach. The objective of its 2 combined platforms is to hack cancer cell communication to induce cancer cell apoptosis and inhibit cancer progression and resistance.
Pacylex Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage company developing a first-in-class, daily, oral cancer therapy with a novel, broad, mechanism of action, as a refractory cancer monotherapy and potential future combination therapy. PCLX-001 is a small molecule, N-myristoylation inhibitor that selectively kills cultured human leukemia and lymphoma cells ex-vivo, completely shrinks leukemia and lymphoma tumors in mice including tumors from drug resistant patients, and strongly inhibits growth of solid tumors in mice including breast and certain lung cancers. In an ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial, PCLX-001 has excellent bioavailability, half-life, and drug exposure with an acceptable safety profile to date when administered orally once daily to patients with relapsed advanced solid tumors or refractory B-cell lymphomas. Since this Phase 1 dose escalation clinical study is nearing the target recommended Phase 2 dose (RP2D), Pacylex is planning to expand the clinical program to AML at MD Anderson this fall in a DoD-supported Phase 2 study, as well as start two Phase 2 studies in DLBCL and solid tumor patients.
Rampart Health is a clinical service-based, development-stage company whose mission is to discover, develop, and introduce innovative approaches for immunotherapy. Our R&D pipeline of new investigational treatments includes multiple target cancers, including prostate cancer, bladder cancer, renal cell cancer, melanoma, and pancreatic cancer.
Rapa Therapeutics is a developer of a healthcare technology platform intended to cure cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company is working on a series of cutting-edge technologies focused on curing cancer, neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases with the help of cell therapy, thereby helping patients to cure their diseases with medical technology.
SageMedic Identifies an Individual’s Optimal Therapy with Live Tumor Tissue. SageMedic’s proprietary technology uses a biopsy of the patient’s own live cancer tissue to create hundreds of biologically similar 3D micro-tumors in our lab. SageMedic’s 3D micro-tumors are then exposed to multiple treatment options, the responses are measured, and within a week the results will be sent to the physician.
SciTech Development, LLC (“SCI”) is a clinical stage, biopharmaceutical company that has developed unique nano-delivery systems (SciTech Drug Delivery Vehicle - SDV) to enable intravenous (IV) delivery of water-insoluble drugs. One such challenged drug is fenretinide which has been shown in extensive clinical trials to be a safe and effective anticancer therapy with targeted cancer destroying activity. The combination of the new SDV and fenretinide has led to SCI’s first drug product, ST-001 nanoFenretinide. The FDA has recently accepted SciTech Development’s Investigational New Drug (IND) Application for ST-001 nanoFenretinide treatment of T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). The FDA has also granted ST-001 nanoFenretinide Orphan Drug Designation for two NHL indications. Phase I/II.
Siva Therapeutics Inc is developing Targeted Hyperthermia™, a photothermal device cancer therapy which uses heat to irreversibly damage solid tumor tissue. The heat is delivered to tumors by infrared light that is absorbed by gold nanorods (‘SivaRods™’) and re-emitted as heat. The size, shape, and surface chemistry of the particles target the leaky vasculature of solid tumors, and the selective thermal sensitivity of tumor tissue enables the therapy to deliver clean margins. Siva therapy promises to be extremely safe, effective, and competitive in cost relative to surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for cancer treatment.
SmartBreast Corp. is privately held with headquarters near Pittsburgh and offices in Los Angeles and Taipei, Taiwan (eveclearscan.com and smartbreast.com are under construction). It is a subsidiary of privately held EVO WorldWide, LLC (evo-worldwide.com) that distributes MBI globally. SmartBreast was founded in 2019 by Bradley Patt, PhD (Board Chair, Los Angeles), Prof. Chin-Tu Chen, PhD (Board Vice-Chair, Chicago), and James Hugg, PhD (CEO, Pittsburgh), each of whom has 30+ years' experience in medical imaging. SmartBreast manufactures molecular breast imaging (MBI) scanners for dense breasts under the brand name EVE CLEAR SCAN™, which along with SmartBreast™, EVE SCAN™, and the EVE owl logo are trademarks of SmartBreast Corporation.
Smart Scan specializes in computed tomography (CT) full body screening exams for the early detection of cancer and heart disease. Since our inception in 2017 we have provided several thousand cancer and heart disease screening exams. Knowledge is power, our screening CT exams will identify your heart attack risk and detect cancer early before it’s had a chance to grow and spread. Armed with this knowledge you and your physician can take action as needed to protect yourself and your family’s wellbeing.
SynDevRx is developing cancer treatments that potentiate the benefits of PI3K inhibitors, one of the most frequently mutated genes in solid tumors. We are advancing to Phase 2 PoC trials to support our initial FDA registration strategy - SDX-7320 (lead drug) in combination with the PI3Ka inhibitor, alpelisib in 2nd line metastatic breast cancer.
TRIO Pharmaceuticals is a cancer therapeutics company with a mission to improve efficacy, reduce toxicity and increase treatment affordability of cancer drugs. We are an experienced team in cancer drug discovery and development. Team members have invented and developed drugs that are approved for cancer treatment. Our approach to eradicating cancer is distinct from the current standard of care. Current approaches involve single agent single action drugs that either inhibit cancer cell growth or inhibit immunosuppression, and hence, they are ineffective. These drugs are combined in a bid to improve efficacy. But combination leads to toxicity, poor efficacy, and high cost. We are developing single agent dual action treatments inhibiting both cancer growth and immunosuppression. We are not targeting the immune checkpoint axis. Our approach will be effective for cancer patients that failed immune checkpoint treatments due to resistance or low expression of PD1, PDL1, CTLA4 etc..