Targeting Blood Cancers

Blood cancers are the fifth most common type of cancer in the world, and around 1.3 million new cases of blood cancer were diagnosed globally in 2020.¹ Blood cancer typically starts in the bone marrow or lymphatic system when blood cells grow out of control.²

B cells are white blood cells that help protect you from infections by making antibodies.³ In B-cell malignancies, the body produces too many abnormal B cells. These abnormal cells, or cancerous cells, are not as effective at fighting infections and can spread to other parts of the body.⁴

There are many ways to treat blood cancer, and new options are being studied all the time. Treatments may depend on the type of blood cancer, the aggressiveness of the disease, the overall health of the patient, and many more factors. These may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, targeted therapy, immunotherapy, a stem cell transplant or a combination of these approaches.⁵

Today, BeOne is working to develop potential first-in-class and best-in-class therapies to address B-cell malignancies, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia / small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL). Our research areas include:

• Targeted therapies, which can target specific proteins within B-cell malignancies to stop cancer growth. This includes:
• • The cornerstone of our hematology franchise – our Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, which can treat B-cell malignancies by shutting down (or inhibiting) proteins within cancerous B cells.
  • Our late-stage B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) inhibitor, which is part of a group of drugs called BH3 mimetics, which mimic natural cell death signals.
• Protein degraders from our Chimeric Degradation Activation Compound (CDAC) platform, which use the cell’s natural ability to dispose of unwanted cells like cancer cells. By harnessing this approach, therapies like protein degraders target cancer cell proteins to signal for them to be destroyed.