IO Biotech's cancer vaccine shows improvement, but narrowly misses study goal
Shares of the drug developer, which had surged as much as 50% in premarket trading, were last trading 7.2% up before the bell.
The company said patients who received the vaccine, in combination with Merck's (MRK.N), opens new tab Keytruda, lived without their disease getting worse for a median of 19.4 months, compared to 11 months for those who received Keytruda alone.
IO Biotech, which was testing the combination vaccine Cylembio in 407 patients with advanced skin cancer, said it was well tolerated with no new safety signals. It also observed a trend toward an improvement in overall survival.
The company said it plans to meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this fall to discuss the data and next steps for a potential regulatory submission.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
11 hours ago
- Reuters
US CDC trust shaken after shooting at Atlanta headquarters
NEW YORK, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Grappling with the aftermath of a shooting that killed a police officer and left nearly 100 shattered windows, leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held virtual meetings with employees on Tuesday to rebuild trust at the agency's Atlanta headquarters. CDC employees who can work from home have not returned to the building, which government leaders toured on Monday. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday during a press conference that nearly 200 rounds had struck six CDC buildings. A source briefed on the matter had previously told Reuters that 85 windows were broken and over 100 doors destroyed. During an hour-long call with staff of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry described the walk through the campus as devastating. "I saw glass everywhere…I saw glass outside your doors and the bullet holes by some of your doors,' Houry said, according to a copy of the recording reviewed by Reuters. During the call, employees described feelings of anger, desperation and isolation, and noted that they felt the extent of the shooting was not receiving the attention it deserved. Georgia investigators said they had found written documents in the shooter's home in which he expressed discontent with the COVID-19 vaccine. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Since being named U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary earlier this year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has targeted vaccine policy, and in May withdrew a federal recommendation for COVID shots for pregnant women and healthy children. Kennedy toured the site on Monday and said no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, defended the CDC as an agency whose goal is to keep the people it serves healthy and safe. 'People, through their words and actions, have created an environment where mistrust and dehumanization of public health and the people that do the lifesaving work have been used as weapons. It's our turn, as public health professionals, to demand that the trust that we have lost be rebuilt," he said during the call. A separate all-staff meeting that had been planned by CDC Director Susan Monarez became a virtual-only, short call on Tuesday without a question and answer session, according to a recording reviewed by Reuters.
Reuters
16 hours ago
- Reuters
India's Apollo Hospitals to double AI investments, beats profit estimate
HYDERABAD, Aug 12 (Reuters) - India's Apollo Hospitals Enterprise ( opens new tab plans to double its investment in artificial intelligence capabilities over the next two to three years, its CEO said, after the company beat first-quarter profit estimates on higher patient volume. The hospital chain already uses AI tools in diagnosis to read X-rays, scan reports and also in endoscopy - a medical procedure to examine the inside of the body using a camera, CEO Madhu Sasidhar told Reuters on Tuesday. Many large private hospital chains in India, like their western counterparts, are investing in AI capabilities to improve patient diagnosis and decisions related to medical procedures, among others uses. Apollo recently developed technology to read existing scan reports and predict the risk of liver fibrosis in the future, Sasidhar said. "We are also bringing some other new generation agentic AI-type tools," he said. He did not quantify the size of Apollo's existing investment in AI. Apollo, headquartered in the south Indian city of Chennai, partnered with Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab earlier this year to develop AI-based tools to be used in healthcare. Some of them are in early stages of testing, Sasidhar said. Indian hospital chains such as Apollo and Manipal have also been increasing their bed count for a larger share of the market, including through acquisitions of smaller hospital operators. Apollo said it is on track to add 4,370 beds over the next 3-4 years through acquisition, new hospitals and expansion of existing facilities. Its overall bed capacity is currently more than 10,000. The company's consolidated net profit rose 41.8% to 4.33 billion rupees ($49.40 million) for April-June, beating estimates of 3.86 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG. While its overall occupancy rate dipped from last year, in-patient volume grew 3% and average revenue per in-patient increased by 9%, according to Apollo. Quarterly total revenue rose 15% to 58.42 billion rupees, beating estimates of 57.44 billion rupees. The company said it expects double-digit revenue growth for the current financial year. ($1 = 87.6520 Indian rupees)
Scottish Sun
18 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
New clues to mysterious extinct & ancient ‘Hobbit' humans that roamed earth 1 million years ago uncovered by scientists
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) SCIENTISTS have found new clues about a mysterious ancient human species - indicating they roamed around the earth a million years ago. The species called "Hobbit" was first discovered in 2004 when archaeologists searching a cave on an Indonesian island found a 60,000-year-old skull no bigger than a grapefruit. 6 Stone tools are pictured at the site where archaeologists found small, chipped tools, used to cut little animals and carve rocks Credit: Reuters 6 Archaeologists from Australia and Indonesia work at the site where they found small, chipped tools Credit: Reuters 6 A reconstruction sculpture of Homo floresiensis who lived tens of thousands of years ago Credit: Alamy And after some digging, archaeologists uncovered some very well-preserved fossil remains in the Liang Bua cave on Flores Island, Indonesia. The diminutive size of this new human species, scientifically called homo floresiensis, earned it the nickname "Hobbit". Shockingly, researchers believe the three-foot-tall hominin had survived until the end of the last Ice Age, some 18,000 years ago. That was much later than Neanderthals lived, later than any human species other than our own. But a new reseach has now found new stone tools that date back to at least a million years - near the place where homo floresiensis once existed. This suggests that the "Hobbit" species may have arrived far earlier than scientists previously estimated. The seven stone tools were found at an Early Pleistocene (Ice Age) site called Calio, located southern Sulawesi. Researchers from Griffith University and Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) dug up small, sharp flakes which early humans would have used as knives and blades. And through advanced dating techniques, the experts were able to confidently place the age of these tools at over 1.04 million years old. Gerrit van den Bergh, a vertebrate paleontologist from the University of Wollongong in Australia, told National Geographic: "At least one million years ago, there were tool-producing hominins on Sulawesi." Mystery Solved: The Story of 'The Screaming Woman' Mummy (1) Professor Adam Brumm, who led the study added: "This discovery adds to our understanding of the movement of extinct humans across the Wallace Line, a transitional zone beyond which unique and often quite peculiar animal species evolved in isolation." However, mystery still remains if the tools were used by "Hobbit" or members of a yet-undiscovered Human species. The homo floresienis were ancient humans that lived between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago. Adults stood just three-and-a-half feet tall and their brains were roughly one-third the size of our own, about the size of a chimpanzee's. 6 Researchers believed the three-foot-tall hominin had survived until the end of the last Ice Age 6 The Liang Bua cave on Flores Island where scientists found remains of 'hobbits' Credit: Alamy Scientists are still debating where they came from. One theory states the Hobbits may have arrived on the island from Java after being washed out to sea by a tsunami. Over time, they could have shrunk on their new island home – a strange yet common phenomenon known as island dwarfism. Their extinction happened around the time modern humans arrived, but the exact reasons are unknown. Who were the homo floresiensis? Homo floresiensis, nicknamed "the Hobbit", was a tiny human species discovered in 2003 on the Indonesian island of Flores. Fossils found in the Liang Bua cave revealed they were about 1 metre tall with very small brains, much smaller than modern humans. Despite this, they lived successfully on the island. They existed from around 100,000 to 50,000 years ago, at the same time as modern humans arrived in the area. They made stone tools, hunted small elephants and large rodents, and adapted to life alongside predators like Komodo dragons. Their ability to survive in such conditions was remarkable. Scientists are still debating where they came from. Some think they evolved from larger humans like Homo erectus, becoming smaller over time due to island living. Others believe they descended from much older ancestors. What's clear is that they were a completely unique species. The discovery of Homo floresiensis changed how we understand human evolution. It showed that brain size doesn't always equal intelligence and that humans were much more varied than previously thought.
