Putin pledges closer ties with ex-Soviet neighbors at CIS summit

TURKMENBASHI, Turkmenistan (AP) — Russia’s President Vladimir Putin hailed cooperation with other ex-Soviet nations on Friday and vowed to help strengthen economic and other ties between them.

Putin said the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose grouping of former Soviet nations, had become an “authoritative regional integration structure” helping maintain “economic, social, cultural and humanitarian ties developed by our peoples over centuries.”

Speaking at a CIS summit in the Caspian Sea resort of Avaza, outside the port city of Turkmenbashi, in Turkmenistan, he said that the Russian language “works as a powerful uniting force across the vast space of the Commonwealth.”

He didn’t mention Russia’s war in Ukraine, but hailed a “stable financial infrastructure that is independent from foreign influence that currently helps us efficiently solve many tasks.”

Russia has expanded its trade with its former Soviet neighbors as it faces Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

Putin said that Russia’s trade with CIS members topped $110 billion in 2025, with 90% of transactions made in national currencies.

“It allows us to deepen economic cooperation regardless of foreign influence,” he said.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, who attended the CIS summit as an observer, later joined a separate meeting of Caspian Sea nations' leaders.

Putin and Pezeshkian held talks on the sidelines of the Turkmenistan summit on Thursday.

“We know that Iran has made genuine efforts to resolve the conflict that erupted in the region not through its fault, not through Iran's fault, and again has put forward new proposals for resolving the situation by peaceful means,” Putin told Pezeshkian at the start of their talks. “For our part, we are ready to do all we can to help you resolve the situation.”

Pezeshkian praised relations between Moscow and Tehran and thanked Russia for opposing U.S “unilateralism.” He said Iran's rights must be respected for the conflict to end.

“We are trying to move the process forward,” Pezeshkian said. “We have made some suggestions, the Americans have given new suggestions, and we have made some adjustments. Once completed, we can sit down with the intermediaries and finalize these suggestions.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the extended format meeting at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Turkmenbasy, Turkmenistan, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian pose for a photo on the sidelines of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Türkmenbaşy, Turkmenistan, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the extended format meeting at the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Turkmenbasy, Turkmenistan, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

From left, Turkmenistan's President Serdar Berdymukhamedov, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon and Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev attend the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Turkmenbasy, Turkmenistan, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

From left, Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Zhaparov, Turkmenistan's President Serdar Berdymukhamedov, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon and Uzbekistan's President Shavkat Mirziyoyev attend the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Turkmenbasy, Turkmenistan, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

ZAMUDIO, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 9, 2026--

Oncomatryx, the Basque biopharmaceutical company pioneering the treatment of solid tumors through their microenvironment, has taken part, together with German research institutions, in a study showing in patient tumor tissue that destroying the cells that protect the tumor also kills cancer cells.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261009453341/en/

This was achieved by OMTX305, a bispecific antibody designed by the company that directs the patient’s own T cells against the fibroblasts surrounding the tumor. The work is published in Science Advances, a journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Key findings

The study was conducted on slices of freshly resected tumors from 15 patients with lung and ovarian cancer, cultured with the patients’ own immune cells. These tissue slices preserve the structure and cell types of the original tumor. The results show that the antibody:

Responses varied between patients. The authors note that clinical trials will need to determine which patient profiles respond most strongly, and point to the tumor’s immune profile and, in lung cancer, PD-L1 expression as potential indicators.

“We have seen in real patient tissue, with its own architecture and immune defenses, that attacking the fibroblasts that protect the tumor also kills the cancer cells around them. These are preclinical results that will need to be confirmed in patients, but they reinforce that the microenvironment is a real route to treating cancer,” said Myriam Fabre, Chief Scientific Officer of Oncomatryx.

“More than fifteen years ago we bet on attacking cancer through what surrounds it, when almost the entire industry was looking only at the tumor cell. This study shows once again that this path makes sense, and it is the same logic behind the drugs we develop, starting with OMTX705, which is already in clinical trials,” said Laureano Simón, founder and CEO of Oncomatryx.

International collaboration

Laureano Simón, Myriam Fabre and Isabel Egaña took part in the study on behalf of Oncomatryx. The study was led by Meng Dong of the Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute of Clinical Pharmacology (Bosch Health Campus) and the University of Tübingen, with Julia Thiel as first author. The University of Stuttgart and Robert Bosch Hospital also collaborated, among other institutions.

The study is available at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aee2124

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About Oncomatryx

Oncomatryx is a Spanish biopharmaceutical company with a global outlook, headquartered in the Basque Country, that pioneered targeting metastatic solid tumors through their microenvironment rather than the tumor cell. The company has also built a platform designed to generate multiple candidates and advance them through clinical proof of concept for licensing to major pharmaceutical companies, spanning the full cycle of research, clinical development and in-house manufacturing that today defines industry leaders.

Oncomatryx is the only biotech company designated strategic by Spain’s Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) and in 2025 was awarded an EIC Accelerator grant from the European Union, one of five life sciences companies selected out of 950 applicants.

FAP CD3 ONCOMATRYX SCIENCE ADVANCES