Nouscom Announces Positive Phase 1 Data of NOUS-209, an ‘off-the-shelf’ Neoantigen Cancer Immunotherapy for the Treatment of dMMR/MSI-H Solid Tumors, at ASCO 2022

On June 6, 2022 Nouscom, a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing off-the-shelf and personalized viral vectored immunotherapies, reported first data from the completed Phase 1 trial evaluating NOUS-209 in combination with anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor (pembrolizumab) (Press release, NousCom, JUN 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234615678]). The data, presented yesterday in a poster discussion session at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting, demonstrated NOUS-209 to be safe, highly immunogenic and with promising signs of clinical efficacy.

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NOUS-209, Nouscom’s lead product, is an off-the-shelf cancer vaccine targeting 209 shared neoantigens. It has been investigated in a Phase 1 clinical trial, administered in combination with the anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab, for the treatment of deficiency in Mismatch Repair/Microsatellite Instable High (dMMR/MSI-H) unresectable or metastatic gastric, colorectal and gastro-esophageal junction tumors.

The key findings from the study are as follows:

NOUS-209 continues to be safe and well tolerated
NOUS-209 immunogenicity was demonstrated by ex-vivo IFN-ɣ ELISpot assay in 83% of evaluable patients; vaccine induced immune responses were potent and broad
Early signs of clinical efficacy with 10 durable confirmed partial responses (PR), 4 durable stable disease (SD) and 6 progressive disease (PD)
Previously presented interim clinical and translational data of the combination indicated that neoantigen-specific CD8+ T cells expand and diversify only upon treatment with NOUS-209, and successfully infiltrate the tumor microenvironment to exert anti-tumor activity (presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper)1 in April 2022).

Professor Marwan G. Fakih, M.D., Medical Oncology Specialist at City of Hope’s Duarte California, and Study investigator said: "With clinical and translational data now available from all patients enrolled in this trial, it is encouraging to see NOUS-209 continuing to be safe, highly immunogenic and have signs of clinical efficacy. Durability of response in all PR and SD patients is particularly encouraging and provides hope for this patient group where there is still a significant unmet need. I look forward to seeing further clinical development of this compound in MSI-H patients."

Dr. Marina Udier, Chief Executive Officer of Nouscom, said: "These new data with all patients enrolled continues to reinforce our compelling and differentiating data for NOUS-209. This is a significant step for the company, validating the potency of our platform in inducing neoantigen specific CD8+ T cells, which are also able to successfully infiltrate tumors of metastatic cancer patients, exerting anti-tumor efficacy. We are actively working on the next stages of NOUS-209’s clinical development plan and look forward to announcing the start of the Phase 2 study in the second half of 2022."

Poster Presentation Details:

Title: First clinical and immunogenicity results including all subjects enrolled in a phase I study of NOUS-209, an off-the-shelf immunotherapy, with pembrolizumab, for the treatment of tumors with a deficiency in mismatch repair/microsatellite instability (dMMR)
The abstract is available here

References

AACR Presentation: Characterization of immune correlates of clinical activity for NOUS-209, an Off-the-Shelf immunotherapy, with Pembrolizumab for treatment of tumors characterized by Microsatellite Instability (MSI), Professor Marwan G. Fakih, M.D.
About NOUS-209

NOUS-209 is an off-the-shelf immunotherapy for Microsatellite Instable High (MSI-H) tumors. MSI-H tumors are characterized by a defective DNA mismatch repair system, which generates highly immunogenic frame shift peptides (frameshift mutations, FSPs) that are not found on healthy tissue.

NOUS-209 is designed to comprise 209 shared FSP neoantigens, selected by Nouscom’s proprietary GENESIS (GE(netic)NE(oantigen)S(election)I(n)S(ilico)) algorithm, on the basis that an average of 50 neoantigens on any patient’s tumor will be shared with those in NOUS-209. Nouscom’s heterologous prime/boost platform clones these FSPs into Great Ape Adenoviral (GAd) and Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vectors, to generate the viral-vectored vaccine, combined with other immunomodulators to harness the full power of the immune response by generating neoantigen specific CD8+ T cells, which successfully infiltrate tumor to exert anti-tumor activity.

NOUS-209 is in Phase 1 clinical trial (NCT04041310), a multicenter, open label, multiple cohorts, first-in-human clinical study of NOUS-209 in combination with pembrolizumab, designed to evaluate safety, tolerability and immunogenicity and to detect preliminary evidence of anti-tumor activity.

AVEO Oncology Presents Three Posters for Tivozanib at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting

On June 6, 2022 AVEO Oncology (Nasdaq: AVEO), a commercial stage, oncology focused biopharmaceutical company, reported that three posters during the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting highlighting data for tivozanib, the Company’s oral, once-daily next-generation vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) designed to block the VEGF pathway by potently and selectively inhibiting all three VEGF receptors (Press release, AVEO, JUN 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234615613]).

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Michael Bailey, president and chief executive officer of AVEO, stated, "We are pleased to present these three posters at this year’s ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting, which we believe further showcase the profile of tivozanib as an effective therapy for relapsed or refractory advanced (R/R) renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients. The overall survival (OS) data from TIVO-3 continue to improve with long-term follow up, including a significant 55% reduction in death with the subset of patients with greater than one year progression free survival (PFS). In addition, we’ve highlighted an analysis of a Phase 2 study which shows tivozanib demonstrated promising activity in non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (nccRCC) patients, a difficult to treat patient population. A third poster presented at the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) Annual Meeting showcases our most advanced clinical combination initiative — our ongoing Phase 3 TiNivo-2 clinical trial evaluating tivozanib in combination with nivolumab — which is designed to generate data to support regulatory approval of tivozanib combined with nivolumab in the larger second-line R/R RCC market following prior immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy."

Poster title: "Maturation of overall survival (OS) in TIVO-3 with long-term follow-up." – (Abstract: 4557; Poster: 48)

AVEO presented a poster evaluating OS with extended mean follow-up. As previously announced, at two years following the last patient in the TIVO-3 study, the mean follow-up was 17.9 months (data cutoff was August 2019) and 65% of patients experienced an event, with an OS hazard ratio (HR) of 0.99 (95% CI 0.76–1.29). With subsequent OS analyses and mean follow-up extended to 22.8 months, the data show that 80% of patients ultimately experienced events and the hazard ratio of OS lowered to 0.89 (95% CI 0.70–1.14), trending in favor of tivozanib.

A conditional survival analysis was also performed which looked at OS for patients whose disease was progression free at the 12 month landmark, showing a statistically significant 55% relative reduction in the risk of death with tivozanib over sorafenib in this population (HR 0.45; 95% CI 0.22–0.91). The median OS for those patients achieving 12 month PFS was 48.3 months (tivozanib) as compared to 32.8 months (sorafenib), once again demonstrating the long-term benefit of tivozanib.

Poster title: "Activity of tivozanib in non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (nccRCC): Subgroup analysis from a phase 2 randomized discontinuation trial." – (Abstract: 4542; Poster: 33)

AVEO presented data from a subgroup analysis of patients with nccRCC who had no prior VEGF targeted treatment in its Phase 2 randomized discontinuation trial evaluating tivozanib. These data showed that the overall response rate (ORR) at 16 weeks in all treated patients with nccRCC was 15.2% by independent radiology review. The best unconfirmed overall response rate (ORR) and confirmed ORR (at any time point) was 31.6% and 21.1%, respectively. The disease control rate was 74%. The median PFS was 6.7 months (204 days). Safety was not analyzed by histology but there were no new safety signals and this was consistent with tivozanib labelling in the intent to treat population.

The analysis concluded that tivozanib demonstrated activity and a favorable safety profile in patients with nccRCC. These data add to the body of evidence supporting VEGFR TKI use in advanced RCC, including in non-clear cell histologies.

Trials in Progress Poster Presentation "TiNivo-2: A phase 3, randomized, controlled, multicenter, open-label study to compare tivozanib in combination with nivolumab to tivozanib monotherapy in subjects with renal cell carcinoma who have progressed following one or two lines of therapy where one line was an immune checkpoint inhibitor." – (Abstract: TPS4605; Poster: 92b)

The Company presented a trial in progress poster for the Phase 3 TiNivo-2 trial, which is evaluating the combination of tivozanib and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s OPDIVO (nivolumab), an antibody directed against programmed death-1 (PD-1), versus tivozanib monotherapy for the treatment of RCC patients progressing following prior immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Subjects will receive tivozanib 1.34 mg orally once daily for 21 consecutive days followed by seven days off, on the monotherapy arm, and tivozanib 0.89 mg at the same schedule in addition to nivolumab 480 mg intravenously every four weeks on the combination arm.

The primary objective of the study is to compare the PFS of tivozanib in combination with nivolumab to monotherapy tivozanib. A sample size of 326 subjects, with 191 events will provide at least 80% power to detect a 50% improvement in PFS as assessed by IRR. Secondary endpoints include assessment of OS, ORR and duration of response, as well as safety and tolerability. Exploratory endpoints are to assess the quality of life and to investigate the pharmacokinetics of tivozanib.

TiNivo-2 opened for enrollment during the third quarter of 2021 and currently expects to complete enrollment in the first half of 2023.

About FOTIVDA (tivozanib)

FOTIVDA (tivozanib) is an oral, next-generation vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). It is a potent, selective inhibitor of VEGFRs 1, 2, and 3 with a long half-life designed to improve efficacy and tolerability. AVEO received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for FOTIVDA on March 10, 2021 for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) following two or more prior systemic therapies. FOTIVDA was approved in August 2017 in the European Union and other countries in the territory of its partner EUSA Pharma (UK) Limited for the treatment of adult patients with advanced RCC. FOTIVDA has been shown to significantly reduce regulatory T-cell production in preclinical models.1 FOTIVDA was discovered by Kyowa Kirin.

INDICATIONS

FOTIVDA is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) following two or more prior systemic therapies.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS

Hypertension and Hypertensive Crisis: Control blood pressure prior to initiating FOTIVDA. Monitor for hypertension and treat as needed. For persistent hypertension despite use of anti-hypertensive medications, reduce the FOTIVDA dose.

Cardiac Failure: Monitor for signs or symptoms of cardiac failure throughout treatment with FOTIVDA.

Cardiac Ischemia and Arterial Thromboembolic Events: Closely monitor patients who are at increased risk for these events. Permanently discontinue FOTIVDA for severe arterial thromboembolic events, such as myocardial infarction and stroke.

Venous Thromboembolic Events: Closely monitor patients who are at increased risk for these events. Permanently discontinue FOTIVDA for severe venous thromboembolic events.

Hemorrhagic Events: Closely monitor patients who are at risk for or who have a history of bleeding.

Proteinuria: Monitor throughout treatment with FOTIVDA. For moderate to severe proteinuria, reduce the dose or temporarily interrupt treatment with FOTIVDA.

Thyroid Dysfunction: Monitor before initiation and throughout treatment with FOTIVDA.

Risk of Impaired Wound Healing: Withhold FOTIVDA for at least 24 days before elective surgery. Do not administer for at least 2 weeks following major surgery and adequate wound healing. The safety of resumption of FOTIVDA after resolution of wound healing complications has not been established.

Reversible Posterior Leukoencephalopathy Syndrome (RPLS): Discontinue FOTIVDA if signs or symptoms of RPLS occur.

Embryo-Fetal Toxicity: Can cause fetal harm. Advise patients of the potential risk to a fetus and to use effective contraception.

Allergic Reactions to Tartrazine: The 0.89 mg capsule of FOTIVDA contains FD&C Yellow No.5 (tartrazine) which may cause allergic-type reactions (including bronchial asthma) in certain susceptible patients.

ADVERSE REACTIONS
The most common (≥20%) adverse reactions were fatigue, hypertension, diarrhea, decreased appetite, nausea, dysphonia, hypothyroidism, cough, and stomatitis, and the most common Grade 3 or 4 laboratory abnormalities (≥5%) were sodium decreased, lipase increased, and phosphate decreased.

DRUG INTERACTIONS

Strong CYP3A4 Inducers: Avoid coadministration of FOTIVDA with strong CYP3A4 inducers.

USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS

Lactation: Advise not to breastfeed.
Females and Males of Reproductive Potential: Can impair fertility.
Hepatic Impairment: Adjust dosage in patients with moderate hepatic impairment. Avoid use in patients with severe hepatic impairment.

To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. at 1-833-FOTIVDA (1-833-368-4832) or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch.

Please see FOTIVDA Full Prescribing Information which is available at www.FOTIVDA.com.

About Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma

According to the American Cancer Society’s 2021 statistics, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer, which is among the ten most common cancers in both men and women. Approximately 73,750 new cases of kidney cancer will be diagnosed annually and about 14,830 people will die from this disease. In patients with late-stage disease, the five-year survival rate is 13%. Agents that target the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway have shown significant antitumor activity in RCC.2 According to a 2019 publication, 50% of the approximately 10,000 patients who progress following two or more lines of therapy choose not to receive further treatment,3 which may be attributable to tolerability concerns and a lack of data to support evidence-based treatment decisions in this highly relapsed or refractory patient population.

BridgeBio Pharma to Participate in June Investor Events

On June 6, 2022 BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: BBIO) ("BridgeBio" or the "Company"), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on genetic diseases and cancers, reported that members of the management team will participate in the following upcoming investor conferences (Press release, BridgeBio, JUN 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234615630]):

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Jefferies Healthcare Conference, New York, NY: Thursday, June 9th at 4:00 pm ET
Goldman Sachs Global Healthcare Conference, Ranchos Palos Verdes, CA: Wednesday, June 15th at 5:00 pm ET
To access the live webcast of BridgeBio’s presentations, please visit the "Events" page within the Investors section of the BridgeBio website at View Source A replay of the webcasts will be available on the BridgeBio website for 90 days following the event.

Bruker Announces Key Innovations for Highly Multiplexed Spatial Proteomics and Multiomic Tissue Imaging at Large Field-of-View

On June 6, 2022 Bruker Corporation (Nasdaq: BRKR) reported key innovations for spatial multiomics of tissue and tumor microenvironments (TME) (Press release, Bruker, JUN 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234615647]). Following Bruker’s strategic partnership with AmberGen1, key enhancements are introduced for MALDI HiPLEX-IHC mass spectrometry imaging.

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MALDI HiPLEX-IHC represents a breakthrough in multiomics imaging by combining targeted protein expression spatial profiling with unbiased small molecule MALDI Imaging to co-localize proteins and small molecules such as glycans, lipids, metabolites, or xenobiotics. Using AmberGen’s MiralysTM antibody-based photocleavable peptide mass tags, highly multiplexed IHC staining and photocleavage of peptide markers fit seamlessly into Bruker’s IntelliSlide-based automated workflows for MALDI imaging.

Novel multiomic imaging enhances spatial high-plex protein imaging with the ability to elucidate metabolic processes in the same tissue section. In addition to mapping tens to over one hundred targeted proteins with high-plex peptide tags, MALDI HiPLEX-IHC can track signaling pathways such as glycosylation, observe lipid spatial profiles for tumor microenvironment segmentation, or simultaneously observe how drugs affect both protein and metabolic states.

Dr. Peggi Angel, Professor of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at the Medical University of South Carolina commented: "From the perspective of a lab heavily invested in cellular signaling processes in cancer biology, MALDI HiPLEX-IHC is a game changer allowing integration of mass spectrometry imaging with cell biology. We will be using this technology for multiomic N-glycan and collagen imaging studies to understand aggressive breast cancers. I expect that researchers investigating the tissue microenvironment will quickly adopt this unique spatial multiomics technology."

Bruker also announced its microGRID module for smartbeam 3D MALDI sources for timsTOF fleX systems. The microGRID improves the MALDI stage to sub-micron precision to correct laser positioning on tissue surfaces down to 5 micrometers (µm), virtually eliminating any visual artifacts or artifacts in co-registration of MALDI images with optical microscopy. As correction is effective for entire pathology slides, microGRID leverages a large field-of-view for MALDI HiPLEX-IHC protein expression profiling.

Dr. Ron Heeren, Distinguished Professor and Limburg co-chair of the Maastricht Multimodal Molecular Imaging (M4I) Institute, added: "At M4I, we develop workflows and techniques to contextualize the role of individual cells in disease, and determine how interactions between cells affects cellular states locally and across long distances."

Dr. Heeren continued: "Since we work closely with pathologists and cancer researchers who are used to microscopes, we cannot afford artifacts in our mass spectrometry images, and need large fields-of-view. Bruker’s microGRID achieves this effortlessly without limiting the area of the slide we can process for multiomic, multimodal images of diseased and homeostatic pathology."

Bruker also demonstrated key updates for MALDI Imaging data analysis using SCiLSTM Lab 2023a, including microGRID support and improvements in handling CCS (collisional cross section)-enabled imaging datasets acquired with timsTOF technology. SCiLSTM Lab 2023a introduces the novel 4D Feature-Finder for visualizing CCS-resolved features in intuitive mass-mobility diagrams. In addition, images produced from multimodal datasets were demonstrated with MALDI HiPLEX-IHC protein expression spatial profiling. This allows SCiLS Lab to leverage its auto-segmentation and statistical profiling tools using images that overlay protein and small molecule localization on the same tissue section.

Bluestar Genomics Receives CLIA Certification for Its Clinical Laboratory

On June 6, 2022 Bluestar Genomics, Inc., an early cancer detection company leading the development and commercialization of next-generation liquid biopsy tests initially focused on non-invasive detection of high-mortality cancers in high-risk patient populations through a standard blood draw, reported it has received Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certification from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Press release, Bluestar Genomics, JUN 6, 2022, View Source [SID1234615663]).

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The certification confirms that Bluestar Genomics’ laboratory meets the federal regulations for clinical diagnostic testing, ensuring high quality and safety for patient testing. As part of the certification process, Bluestar Genomics recently completed analytical validation evaluating the accuracy and reliability of the company’s early detection test for pancreatic cancer. Top-line results showed significantly stronger performance than previously reported particularly in early stage (I/II) detection. Full data from the study will be published in a peer reviewed journal in the coming months.

"Securing CLIA certification is an important step for Bluestar Genomics. It underscores our pancreatic cancer test’s competitive performance, enables us to start clinical testing in our lab and allows us to move forward with larger clinical validation studies," said David Mullarkey, chief executive officer. "This certification, combined with our growing body of scientific evidence, positions us to become the first cancer detection company to offer clinical epigenomic testing for early pancreatic cancer detection."

Currently, pancreatic cancer ranks as the third most deadly cancer with a combined five-year survival rate of only 5% to 10%. Research has shown that early detection in pancreatic cancer can increase patient survival nearly ten-fold.