Nordic Life Science 1
I Reagan Jarvis, CEO, Anocca t’s not just the unm
et need that has motivated the choice of target, however. These targets have a number of favorable qualities, according to Jarvis, including that they’re tumor selective, and that KRAS mutants are driver mutations that remain in the primary tumor and metastases – making them good, ubiquitous targets for the indications that Anocca is exploring. “We’ve spent over ten years building capability and building a product pipeline. Now it's about leveraging that capability to deploy “We can drive unique clinical parameters around this program. We've designed clinical programs that are very focused on single indications, that build these precision therapies in a coherent way where we can interpret early phase data, and build clinical regimens and protocols that drive the deepest and most durable clinical responses,” Jarvis explains. “This is in contrast to many clinical trials in cell therapies where, more generally, there are big basket trials, lots of indications. It’s time consuming. It's expensive. It gives ambiguous data in Phase IIa because there are all these different indications to sort through. Instead, we’re making very precise clinical programs. You can interpret early stage data in terms of efficacy and have pre-mapped pathways to an approvable product,” he says. The next steps When asked what’s next for Anocca, Viktor Arnkil and Reagan Jarvis delve into how the company has grown, what it has built since its inception in 2014, and where it’s going. “It’s really great that we’re about to bring a product to patients for real. Ten years of development has culminated in our first product with good safety and efficacy. This will be followed by other products, and we expect to have multiple products in parallel studies in 2027,” Arnkil says. “In my opinion, we have not succeeded as a biotech that aspires to manufacture drugs to take to market until we’ve actually brought a product to patients and can see that it has good efficacy,” he continues. “We've spent over ten years building capability and building a product pipeline. Now it's about leveraging that capability to deploy these innovative therapies into human testing and towards commercialization,” muses Jarvis. “Building the capability to deploy these precision therapies at scale has really required an investment – and not just financial. It’s the actual thousands of hours spent generating the technology, the systems, the software, and the manufacturing facilities to do this at scale. I think that box is now well and truly ticked, and now it's about developing these products at scale into human testing,” he concludes. NLS these innovative therapies into human testing and towards commercialization.” 76 | NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG HOT TOPIC // MANUFACTURING PHOTO ANOCCA