Saturday was the official first day of the 2014 American Society of Hema­tology (ASH) annual meeting. The day featured a wide range of in­ter­est­ing pre­sen­ta­tions about mul­ti­ple myeloma.

Oral pre­sen­ta­tions about new treat­ments under devel­op­ment were given mid-day and were summarized in a Beacon ASH Daily Update published yes­ter­day morn­ing.

During Saturday evening, a poster session took place where im­por­tant new re­search findings were summarized in posters dis­played throughout two separate large conference halls.

The stud­ies covered a variety of myeloma-related topics, ranging from new treat­ments being devel­oped for myeloma, com­bi­na­tion ther­a­pies …

The 2014 annual meeting of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) starts tomorrow, De­cem­ber 5, in San Francisco, and will con­tinue until next Tuesday.

The ASH annual meeting is one of sev­er­al large med­i­cal conferences where myeloma-related re­search findings are pre­sented each year.  However, from a mul­ti­ple myeloma perspective, the ASH meeting is generally the most im­por­tant of the meetings.

At this year’s meeting, for example, some 500 myeloma-presentations are scheduled to take place.  The pre­sen­ta­tions will summarize cur­rent re­search on a wide range of topics, in­clud­ing the biology of the dis­ease …

• This Phase I trial will test the safety and tolerability of lirilumab (BMS-986015) in combination with elotuzumab (BMS-901608) in patients with multiple myeloma
• This new Phase I initiated by Bristol-Myers Squibb is the first combination trial of lirilumab in a hematological tumor type

Marseille, France (Press Release) - Innate Pharma SA (the "company" -  euronext paris:FR0010331421 - IPH), the innate immunity com­pany devel­op­ing first-in-class thera­peutic anti­bodies for cancer and in­flam­ma­tory dis­eases, to­day an­nounced that a new Phase I com­bi­na­tion trial with lirilumab, a …

The pharma­ceu­tical com­pa­nies Bristol-Myers Squibb and AbbVie an­nounced this morn­ing that the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­istra­tion has granted break­through ther­apy desig­na­tion to the inves­ti­ga­tional drug elo­tuz­u­mab.

Specifically, the Food and Drug Admin­istra­tion (FDA) granted break­through ther­a­py desig­na­tion to elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) and dexamethasone (Decadron) for mul­ti­ple myeloma patients who have re­ceived one or more prior ther­a­pies.

The break­­through ther­apy desig­na­tion is a new desig­na­tion that was signed into law in 2012. It is de­signed to ac­cel­er­ate the de­vel­op­ment and review process for drugs in­tended …

Designation granted for inves­ti­ga­tional agent elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with lena­lido­mide and dexa­meth­a­sone for treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma in patients who have re­ceived one or more prior ther­a­pies

Princeton, NJ and North Chicago, IL (Press Release) – Bristol-Myers Squibb Com­pany (NYSE:BMY) and AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) to­day an­nounced that the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­istra­tion (FDA) has granted elotuzumab, an inves­ti­ga­tional humanized mono­clonal anti­body, Break­through Therapy Desig­na­tion for use in com­bi­na­tion with lena­lido­mide and dexa­meth­a­sone for the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma in patients who have re­ceived one or more prior ther­a­pies. The desig­na­tion is based on findings from a ran­dom­ized Phase 2, open-label study that eval­u­ated two dose levels of elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with lena­lido­mide and low-dose dexa­meth­a­sone in pre­vi­ously-treated …

• Median progression-free survival (PFS) of 33 months reached after longer-term follow up in patients treated with elotuzumab 10 mg/kg plus lenalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone
• Longer-term safety profile of the combination consistent with previously reported results
• Results Presented at 18th Annual Congress of the European Hematology Association
• Two Phase 3 studies of elotuzumab at 10 mg/kg dose ongoing in patients with previously-treated and newly-diagnosed multiple myeloma

Princeton, NJ and North Chicago, IL (Press Release) – Bristol-Myers Squibb Com­pany (NYSE: BMY) and AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) to­day an­nounced up­dated ef­fi­cacy and safety data from a small, ran­dom­ized Phase 2, open-label study in patients with pre­vi­ously-treated mul­ti­ple myeloma that eval­u­ated two doses of the inves­ti­ga­tional mono­clonal anti­body elotuzumab (10 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg) in com­bi­na­tion with lena­lido­mide and low-dose dexa­meth­a­sone. In the 10 mg/kg arm (N=36), which is the dose used in the on­go­ing Phase 3 trials, median pro­gres­sion-free sur­vival (PFS), or the time without dis­ease pro­gres­sion, …

This year’s meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) was held May 31 through June 4 in Chicago.

During the meeting, The Beacon pub­lished daily up­dates that provided over­views of the im­por­tant mul­ti­ple myeloma findings pre­sented during the meeting.

Now that the meeting has concluded, the focus shifts to the bigger picture: What were the key findings of the meeting? Were there re­­sults with im­medi­ate im­pli­ca­­tions for the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma?  Did the re­search at the meeting rep­re­sent a major step for­ward for myeloma patients, or …