Vaccinex Reports Clinical Benefit In Interim Analyses From Two Phase 2 Studies Of Pepinemab Combination Treatment At Society For Immunotherapy Of Cancer's Annual Meeting

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | October 31, 2023 09:13am

Vaccinex, Inc. (NASDAQ:VCNX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company, will be reporting novel findings for its lead product, pepinemab, in two presentations at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), being held in San Diego, CA November 1-5, 2023. Vaccinex reports consistent findings from two independent studies demonstrating novel activity of pepinemab antibody to induce the formation of lymphoid structures in tumors that promote efficient immune responses and are known to be associated with improved outcomes to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). In a pre-specified interim analysis of the Phase 2 KEYNOTE-B84 study (NCT04815720) evaluating pepinemab in combination with Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for immunotherapy of recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), these structures were associated with an approximate doubling of objective responses (ORR) and progression free survival (PFS) relative to historical results with checkpoint monotherapy in patients with hard-to-treat tumors that express low levels of PD-L1 (CPS<20). Similarly, findings will be reported from a separate study with collaborators at Emory University indicating that pepinemab in combination with nivolumab and/or ipilimumab (BMS), appeared to induce tertiary lymphoid structures in tumors. Remarkably, patients receiving neoadjuvant treatment with the triple combination have not experienced tumor recurrence for more than 2 years following treatment (ongoing response in 8/8 patients) (NCT03769155).

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