- The parties plan to conduct a clinical collaboration trial with Targovax TG mutant RAS vaccine
- The collaboration will focus on testing TG vaccination in combination with other treatments in late stage pancreatic cancer
Oslo, Norway, 15 March 2019 – Targovax ASA (OSE: TRVX), a clinical stage biotechnology company developing immune activators to target hard-to-treat solid tumors, today announces that it has entered into an agreement with The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) and the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) for a clinical collaboration with Targovax’ TG mutant RAS vaccine (TG).
Under the agreement, PICI, CRI and Targovax plan to set up one or more clinical trials with TG, in combination with other immuno-oncology treatments and chemotherapy, in late stage pancreatic cancer. PICI will be the sponsor and responsible for running the clinical trials and scientific analyses, CRI and PICI co-organize the immunotherapy experts, and Targovax will be responsible for TG supply. Targovax may also contribute by partial cost sharing of the trial(s). The design of the first clinical trial is currently under discussion.
For further information, please contact:
Renate Birkeli, Investor Relations
Phone: +47 922 61 624
Email: renate.birkeli@targovax.com
Media and IR enquires:
Andreas Tinglum – Corporate Communications (Norway)
Phone: +47 9300 1773
Email: andreas.tinglum@corpcom.no
About Targovax
Activating the patient’s immune system to fight cancer
Targovax (OSE:TRVX) is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing immune activators to target hard-to-treat solid tumors. Immuno-oncology is currently one of the fastest growing therapeutic fields in medicine.
Targovax’s lead product candidate, ONCOS-102, is a genetically modified oncolytic adenovirus, which has been engineered to selectively infect and replicate in cancer cells. It has been shown to activate the immune system to generate tumor-specific immune responses. In phase I trials, ONCOS-102 induced both local and systemic innate and adaptive immune activation, which has been associated with clinical benefit. ONCOS-102’s targeted path-to-market indication is mesothelioma, where the virus is currently being tested in a randomized phase II trial. Another trial, in checkpoint inhibitor refractory advanced melanoma, is expected to produce important proof-of-concept immune activation data in heavily pre-treated patients.
Targovax is also developing a neo-antigen cancer vaccine targeting tumors with oncogenic RAS–mutations, which are known to drive cancer. The TG vaccine program has shown strong RAS-specific immune activation and a signal of clinical efficacy in a 32-patient trial with TG01 in resected pancreatic cancer. A next generation product candidate, TG02 is currently tested in a phase I trial in colorectal cancer, both as monotherapy and in combination with Keytruda (an anti-PD1 check point inhibitor).
About the Cancer Research Institute
The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), established in 1953, is the world’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to transforming cancer patient care by advancing scientific efforts to develop new and effective immune system-based strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and eventually cure all cancers. Guided by a world-renowned Scientific Advisory Council that includes four Nobel laureates and 26 members of the National Academy of Sciences, CRI has invested $384 million in support of research conducted by immunologists and tumor immunologists at the world’s leading medical centers and universities, and has contributed to many of the key scientific advances that demonstrate the potential for immunotherapy to change the face of cancer treatment. CRI’s clinical program, the Anna-Maria Kellen Clinical Accelerator, is a unique academic-nonprofit-industry collaboration model that serves as an “incubator” that delivers multi-center clinical trials for promising new immunotherapy combinations. CRI’s venture philanthropy fund supports clinical trials within this program, which fosters a collaborative environment that enables scientists to advance their most ambitious research ideas, and accelerates studies that one group or company could not do alone.
About the Parker Institute
The California, USA, based Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy brings together the best scientists, clinicians and industry partners to build a smarter and more coordinated cancer immunotherapy research effort. The Parker Institute is an unprecedented collaboration between the country’s leading immunologists and cancer centers. The program started by providing institutional support to six academic centers, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford Medicine, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Pennsylvania and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The institute also provides programmatic support for top immunotherapy investigators, including a group of researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Robert Schreiber, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Philip Greenberg, MD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Stephen Forman, MD, of City of Hope. The Parker Institute network also includes more than 40 industry and nonprofit partners, more than 60 labs and more than 170 of the nation’s top researchers focused on treating the deadliest cancers. The goal is to accelerate the development of breakthrough immune therapies capable of turning most cancers into curable diseases. The institute was created through a $250 million grant from The Parker Foundation.