OCTOBER 2022LIFE SCIENCES REVIEW 19CXO INSIGHTSPlease comment on your current role and responsibility in leading the cancer immunotherapy research and development at Janssen? I lead the immuno-oncology team at Janssen, where our efforts are focused on the discovery and development of next-generation approaches to immunotherapy that include antibody-based drugs, cell therapies, and novel cancer vaccines. One promising approach that we are working on is allogeneic cell therapy, derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC). The objective is to convert these IPSC into immune cells that can fight cancer by engineering them ex vivo. This is incredibly significant as these stem cells grow perpetually in culture, becoming a great source for treating cancer in a wider array of patients.What are some of the challenges you have witnessed in the cancer immunotherapy space, and how do you align yourselves accordingly?There are two areas to improve in immunotherapy. One is translating preclinical data into clinical data. The other area is predicting what drugs will work in patients and specific tumor types.Take for instance, the potential cancer immunotherapeutic target, lymphocyte activation gene-3 (LAG-3), which the industry has been evaluating since 2005 for its negative regulatory role on T cells. Recently, it was observed that the combination of anti-LAG-3 and anti-PD-1 doubled progression-free survival in patients with melanoma in first-line treatment. Contrary to this, there is also a fair amount of false predictions and target failures that occurred in larger trials of immunotherapy. Take for example T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain, or TIGIT, which has been recognized as a promising novel target for cancer immunotherapy. A lot of preclinical data and some randomized patient data suggest that anti-TIGIT and THE CANCER IMMUNOTHERAPY TREATMENT PARADIGMBy Charles Drake, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President, Immuno-Oncology, Janssen Research & Development, LLC, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & JohnsonCharles DrakeCharles Drake is VP, Immuno-Oncology at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Prior to Janssen, Dr Drake was the Director of Genitourinary Oncology, Co-Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Program, and Associate Director for Clinical Research at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr Drake's areas of expertise include immunotherapy and the diagnosis and treatment of cancers of the prostate, kidney, bladder, and testes. His work focuses on using the power of the immune system to fight advanced-stage cancers. He is known for rapidly incorporating discoveries made in the research lab into innovative clinical trials, including anti-tumor vaccines. His most recent work has focused on the body's immunological response to radiation therapy and how immunotherapy and radiation therapy can be used in concert to treat cancer.
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