Vor shares new data for stem cell therapy; Melinta partners with Venatorx on antibiotic under FDA review

Plus, news about BeiGene, Zymeworks, Rz­nomics, and Adicet:

Vor Bio shares ear­ly da­ta for its gene-edit­ed stem cell ther­a­py: The com­pa­ny an­nounced Thurs­day that its stem cell treat­ment seemed to en­graft nor­mal­ly in sev­en pa­tients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) treat­ed so far. Three pa­tients who re­ceived My­lotarg — Pfiz­er’s AML drug — saw “pro­tec­tion from deep cy­tope­nias,” or a steep drop in blood cell counts that’s of­ten seen as a side ef­fect of the drug. My­lotarg tar­gets CD33, an anti­gen found in high lev­els on leukemia cells but al­so ex­pressed in some nor­mal cells. Vor, found­ed on re­search led by Sid­dhartha Mukher­jee, ed­its CD33 out of donor stem cells with the goal of spar­ing pa­tients from the treat­ment’s side ef­fects. More da­ta are set to be pre­sent­ed at ASH, the com­pa­ny an­nounced last week. — Lei Lei Wu

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