Replies to post #184491 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

FMI—Thanks for that handy reference to actual and purported competitors. I’ll comment more later. Regards, Dew

[zipjet]

CLRX

I don't remember seeing a public company with a MC of $2.2M.

Roy could buy that one with pocket change.

:-)

ij

[DewDiligence]

Dana Farber tests new approach to “precision oncology”:

http://www.dana-farber.org/Newsroom/News-Releases/novel-precision-medicine-tool-could-help-personalize-cancer-treatments.aspx

By measuring how vigorously tumor cells turn on “self-destruct” signals when exposed to different cancer drugs, a novel lab test can predict within less than 24 hours which agent is most likely to work against a particular tumor, say researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

…A team led by Dana-Farber oncologist Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, reported in the February 26 online edition of the journal Cell that the test consistently predicted the “winner” among many drugs tested against a wide variety of cancer cells in the laboratory. In most cases, the answer emerged 16 hours after the anti-cancer compounds were mixed with tumor cells.

…The technique is called Dynamic BH3 Profiling, or DBP. It is designed to detect the earliest signs that a cancer cell treated with a drug is beginning to destroy itself through apoptosis…

…A major thrust of precision cancer medicine currently is to test a patient’s tumor for DNA mutations that have been found to make the cancer sensitive to certain drugs that target those mutations. This isn’t always successful, and most tumors likely have properties beyond mutations that determine its responsiveness to drugs. The authors of the new study say the DBP method is potentially more powerful because it directly tests the cancer drugs of interest directly on cells from the patient’s tumor, and quickly determines which drugs can kill the cancer.

…Other authors [of the paper in Cell] are from Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital.

H/t @PDRennert.