Targovax completes lead-in portion of cancer trial
Targovax
kr10,000.00
19:00 21/12/20
Clinical stage immuno-oncology therapies company Targovax has completed the lead-in portion of a randomised clinical trial on its mesothelioma cancer treatment in an attempt to test the product's safety and clinical benefit versus chemotherapy.
Data from all six patients in the safety lead-in cohort of the ONCOS-102 and pemetrexed/cisplatin trial on first- and second-line patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma had been reviewed by the independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), with the group raising no concerns over the outcome of the trials, it recommended Targovax initiate the randomised portion of the trial after recruiting a further 24 patients.
Early immune activation has been assessed for a subset of the patients. Systemic release of several pro-inflammatory cytokines was observed (3/3 patients analyzed), demonstrating that the treatment triggers an innate immune response.
Also, there was an increase in the relative level of tumour-infiltrating cytotoxic CD8+ T-cells (2/2 patients with pre- and post-treatment biopsies analysed), indicating an activation of the adaptive immune system in the lesions," the firm told investors on Wednesday.
Magnus Jäderberg, chief marketing officer of Targovax, said, "We are very pleased that the safety lead-in cohort was completed without any concerns, and that we now can move into the randomized part of the trial."
"The systemic and lesional immune activation are in line with what we saw in the mesothelioma patients from our phase I trial, in which there was an associated clinical response. It will, therefore, be interesting to follow what clinical benefits may be seen in the subsequent randomized part of the ongoing trial," he added.
As of 1000 GMT, shares had dropped 2.37% to 16.62p.