Imugene's oncolytic virotherapy VAXINIA and B cell immunotherapy HER-Vaxx featured at the AACR Annual Meeting 2024

• Oncolytic virus CF33-hNIS (VAXINIA) alone or in combination with KEYTRUDA is a safe treatment option for advanced cancer patients.
• Encouraging VAXINIA efficacy, including a complete response (CR) and two partial responses (PRs), has warranted cohort expansions in biliary tract cancer and other tumour types.
• Compared to chemotherapy alone, vaccination with HER-Vaxx was associated with a 40% overall survival benefit.
• HER-Vaxx induced HER2-specific antibody levels correlate with tumour reduction.

SYDNEY, Australia, April 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company, is pleased to announce poster presentations featuring its CF33 oncolytic virotherapy VAXINIA and B cell immunotherapy HER-Vaxx at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 5-10 April 2024, in San Diego, CA.

Daneng Li, M.D., a City of Hope associate professor in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research commented, “The results show that our novel oncolytic virus — both alone or in combination with immunotherapy — has the ability to control various cancer types previously resistant to other treatment options, and these early results provide patients with hope of a new treatment option for cancers refractory to standard treatment.”

Imugene Managing Director & CEO Leslie Chong said: "Preliminary data from the MAST trial demonstrates encouraging anti-tumour activity with our oncolytic virus CF33-hNIS (VAXINIA). Notably, one patient with cholangiocarcinoma, or biliary tract cancer, achieved an immunological complete response (CR), meaning the disappearance of all signs of their cancer after treatment with VAXINIA, with no known recurrence after one year. These encouraging results warrant further investigation in patients will biliary tract cancer and other cancers. In addition, further analysis of the T cell repertoire reveals that T cell diversity may serve a predictive biomarker, which can be used to prospectively identify appropriate patients for treatment.”

Details on the poster presentations are below:

Presentation Title: Oncolytic virus CF33-hNIS for the treatment of advanced cancer
Abstract Presentation Number: CT182
Session Date and Time: Tuesday April 9, 2024, 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM PT
Session Title: First-in-Human Phase I Clinical Trials 2
Presenter: Daneng Li, MD

Highlights include:

• At the data cut-off of 19 December 2023, there were 31 efficacy-evaluable patients in the MAST study. In the intratumoural (IT) cohorts, 7 of 16 (44%) injected lesions had a reduction in tumour burden and 3 lesions were completely eradicated. Three of the IT treated patients had an objective response: 1 complete response by iRECIST in a patient with cholangiocarcinoma and 2 partial responses by RECIST in patients with melanoma. In the intravenous (IV) cohorts, 9 of 17 (53%) patients achieved stable disease as their best response. Patients who received prior checkpoint blockade therapy derived clinical benefit with and without pembrolizumab. Viral replication, assessed by SPECT, was higher in patients who had a reduction in tumour burden.