Imguene to present on CF33 and HER-Vaxx immunotherapy programs at American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting

The company will present on the CF33 oncolytic virus program and on the HER-Vaxx cancer immunotherapy program during the prestigious association's annual meeting.

Imugene is developing a range of novel immunotherapies that seek to activate the immune system of cancer patients.

Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU) (OTCMKTS:IUGNF) will present on two key novel immunotherapies that seek to activate the immune system of cancer patients to treat and eradicate tumours - the CF33 oncolytic virus program and HER-Vaxx cancer immunotherapy program - at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2021 annual meeting in April.

A presentation on the CF33 oncolytic virus program will be made by City of Hope’s Dr Yanghee Woo, MD, Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Surgery and director Gastroenterology Minimally Invasive Therapy Program.

This will be titled ‘Subcutaneous Intratumoral Administration of a Novel Oncolytic Virus Leads to Eradication of Peritoneal Disseminated Pancreatic Cancer in Nude Mice'

A presentation on the HER-Vaxx cancer immunotherapy program will be made by Imugene’s chief medical officer Dr Rita Laeufle.

The abstract presentation is entitled 'A Phase 1B/2 Open-Label Study with Randomization in Phase 2 of IMU-131 HER2/NEU Peptide Immunotherapy plus Standard of Care Chemotherapy in Patients with HER2/NEU Overexpressing Metastatic or Advanced Adenocarcinoma of the Stomach or Gastroesophageal Junction'.

Virus developed in two constructs

IMU’s 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 content of the presentation is embargoed until the start of the conference and will be made available online after the start of the meeting and on the Imugene website.

HER-Vaxx presentation

Imugene’s HER-Vaxx is a B-cell peptide cancer immunotherapy designed to treat tumours that overexpress the HER-2/neu receptor, such as gastric, breast, ovarian, lung and pancreatic cancers.

The immunotherapy is constructed from several B cell epitopes derived from the extracellular domain of HER-2/neu.

IMU's presentation will be made by Dr Laeufle at the Virtual AACR annual meeting with the content also set for embargo until the start of the conference.

The company has a market cap of approximately A$456.9 million and shares today have been as much as 10% higher to A$0.11.

First patient dosed in phase-I trial

Imugene last month notched up a key milestone with dosing of the first patient in cohort-2 in the phase-I clinical trial of its checkpoint immunotherapy candidate, PD1-Vaxx.

The first patient in the mid-dose (50µg) cohort-2 was dosed at the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, USA, and the first-in-human, Phase-I multi-centre dose escalation study of PD1-Vaxx is recruiting patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Medical investigators will test three different doses of PD1-Vaxx.

The primary aim of the phase-I trial is to determine safety and an optimal biological dose as a monotherapy (mOBD).

Efficacy, tolerability and immune response will also be measured.