Allison opines

Investors are eyeing this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting for data on immunotherapy combinations, especially combinations of PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors with therapies that target different parts of the immune system.

In advance of the meeting, BioCentury talked with immunotherapy pioneer James Allison, chair of the immunology department and executive director of the immunotherapy platform at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Allison’s discovery that a blockade of the checkpoint protein cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated protein 4 (CTLA-4; CTLA4; CD152) could suppress tumor growth led the development and approval of the first approved checkpoint inhibitor: Yervoy ipilimumab from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. ...