Latest Email from Leslie (11 Feb 2020 @ 9am)

I'm on a Imugene distribution list and this just arrived.
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Hello from Leslie Chong.

I'm excited to inform you that the preclinical data and results for our licensed oncolytic virotherapy CheckVacc have been published this week in the prestigious Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

The title of the work is "Novel Chimeric Immuno-Oncolytic Virus CF33-hNIS-antiPDL1 for the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer" authored by Yanghee Woo MD, Zhifang Zhang PhD, Annie Yang MD, Shyambabu Chaurasiya PhD, Anthony Park BA, Jianming Lu BA, Sang-In Kim BA, Min Li BA, Susanne Warner MD, Daniel Von Hoff MD, and our Chairman of the Imugene OV SAB Professor Yuman Fong MD.

Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is fatal. Our preclinical study presents an effective treatment against PDAC PC employing a novel oncolytic viral agent, CF33-hNIS-antiPDL1 (CheckVacc).

CF33-hNIS-antiPDL1 virus is effective in infecting and killing human PDACs and producing functional anti-PD-L1 antibody. IP delivery of CF33-hNIS-antiPDL1 effectively reduces peritoneal tumor burden and improves survival after only one dose and is superior to IV delivery.

The CF33 oncolytic virus (OV) was developed in the lab of Professor Yuman Fong, an internationally recognised surgeon and scientist at City of Hope, a world-renowned independent research and treatment centre for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases based in California.

CF33 has been developed in two different constructs: one version of the OV is “armed” with an immune checkpoint inhibitor inserted in the virus, which is known as CheckVacc; and the other an unarmed construct, known as Vaxinia.

The abstract of the manuscript can be viewed by clicking here. We'll share the final journal version of the full paper once available in the coming weeks.

Whilst the paper details the outstanding results seen in pancreatic cancer, CheckVacc will initially be tested in patients suffering Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), where equally important preclinical data has been collected.

To remind you of the potential of Imugene's oncolytic virus platform, it was featured on Channel 7 news late last year. Click here to view the segment.

I encourage you to continue to follow our progress.

As always, many thanks for your enduring support.

Warmest,
Leslie