BERGENBIO HOSTING VIRTUAL R&D DAY TODAY
Bergen, Norway, 06 November 2020 – BerGenBio ASA (OSE:BGBIO), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel, selective AXL kinase inhibitors for severe unmet medical need, is pleased to announce that it is hosting a Virtual R&D Day today.
The online event will begin at 13.00pm CET (04.00am PST/06.00am CST). Please click here to register.
The event will feature experts from academic institutions across Europe and the US, highlighting the role of AXL kinase as an essential mediator of the biological mechanisms underlying life-threatening diseases, such as cancer, fibrosis and infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
Each presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. Further details on the presentations can be found in the agenda below.
Richard Godfrey, Chief Executive Officer of BerGenBio, commented: “BerGenBio has always been committed to pursuing excellence and innovation in R&D. We remain a world leader in understanding the role and function of AXL biology, and with our collaborators we have demonstrated that AXL is a key driver of immune evasive and drug-resistant metastatic cancer, as well as other aggressive diseases. We are grateful to all our speakers, who during today’s event will be providing insights into the latest AXL research, including the clinical benefit seen from bemcentinib.”
| Agenda (times in CET) |
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| 13:00 | Introduction - Richard Godfrey, Chief Executive Officer, BerGenBio |
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Presentations from independent AXL experts, followed by Q&A sessions led by Jim Lorens, Chief Scientific Officer and Hani Gabra, Chief Medical Officer at BerGenBio |
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| 13:10 | AXL in AML/MDS – Professor Sonja Loges, Director, Department of Personalised Oncology, University Hospital Mannheim and Division of Personalised Medical Oncology, German Cancer Research Center - DKFZ (Heidelberg, Germany) |
| 13:40 | AXL in lung cancer – Dr Matthew Krebs, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Experimental Cancer Medicine and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (Manchester, UK) |
| 14:10 | AXL and viruses/COVID-19 – Professor Wendy Maury, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Iowa (Iowa City, USA) |
| 14:40 | AXL in fibrosis/IPF – Professor Cory Hogaboam, Professor of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles, USA) |
| 15:10 | Bemcentinib clinical development plan – Hani Gabra, Chief Medical Officer, BerGenBio |
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15:25 |
Concluding remarks – Richard Godfrey, Chief Executive Officer, BerGenBio |
| For further information, please contact Consilium Strategic Communications at bergenbio@consilium-comms.com or ir@bergenbio.com | |
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About AXL
AXL kinase is a cell membrane receptor and an essential mediator of the biological mechanisms underlying life-threatening diseases. In cancer, AXL suppresses the body’s immune response to tumours and drives cancer treatment failure across many indications. AXL expression defines a very poor prognosis subgroup in most cancers. AXL inhibitors, therefore, have potential high value at the centre of cancer combination therapy, addressing significant unmet medical needs and multiple high-value market opportunities. Research has also shown that AXL mediates other aggressive diseases.
About Bemcentinib
Bemcentinib (formerly known as BGB324), is a potentially first-in-class selective AXL inhibitor in a broad phase II clinical development programme. Ongoing clinical trials are investigating bemcentinib in multiple solid and haematological tumours, in combination with current and emerging therapies (including immunotherapies, targeted therapies and chemotherapy), and as a single agent. Bemcentinib targets and binds to the intracellular catalytic kinase domain of AXL receptor tyrosine kinase and inhibits its activity. Increase in AXL function has been linked to key mechanisms of drug resistance and immune escape by tumour cells, leading to aggressive metastatic cancers.
About BerGenBio ASA
BerGenBio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative drugs targeting AXL as a potential cornerstone of therapy for aggressive diseases, including immune-evasive, therapy resistant cancers. The company's proprietary lead candidate, bemcentinib, is a potentially first-in-class selective AXL inhibitor in a broad phase II clinical development programme focused on combination and single agent therapy in lung cancer, leukaemia and COVID-19. A first-in-class functional blocking anti-AXL antibody, tilvestamab, is undergoing phase I clinical testing. In parallel, BerGenBio is developing a companion diagnostic test to identify patient populations most likely to benefit from bemcentinib: this is expected to facilitate more efficient registration trials supporting a precision medicine-based commercialisation strategy.
BerGenBio is based in Bergen, Norway with a subsidiary in Oxford, UK. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker: BGBIO). For more information, visit www.bergenbio.com
Contacts
Richard Godfrey CEO, BerGenBio ASA
+47 917 86 304
Rune Skeie, CFO, BerGenBio ASA
rune.skeie@bergenbio.com
+47 917 86 513
International Media Relations
Mary-Jane Elliott, Chris Welsh, Lucy Featherstone, Carina Jurs
Consilium Strategic Communications
bergenbio@consilium-comms.com
+44 20 3709 5700
Media Relations in Norway
Jan Petter Stiff, Crux Advisers
stiff@crux.no
+47 995 13 891
Forward looking statements
This announcement may contain forward-looking statements, which as such are not historical facts, but are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions. These assumptions are inherently subject to significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors. Such risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the expectations expressed or implied in this announcement by such forward-looking statements.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.