On November 5, 2024 Vaccinex, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCNX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering a differentiated approach to treating cancer and neurodegenerative disease (NDD) through the inhibition of SEMA4D, reported that it will present new biomarker data that neoadjuvant treatment with pepinemab enhanced the clinical activity of immune checkpoint inhibitors in poorly immunogenic, HPV-negative, head and neck cancer (HNSCC) (Press release, Vaccinex, NOV 5, 2024, View Source [SID1234647747]). In a presentation at Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper)’s Annual Meeting (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper) on November 8th, Vaccinex will present data from the Phase 2 KEYNOTE-B84 study (NCT04815720) for treatment of recurrent and metastatic disease as well as an independent study evaluating neoadjuvant treatment of resectable HNSCC (NCT03690986) showing that pepinemab combination treatments appear to induce mature lymphoid aggregates correlating with clinical benefit within immunotherapy resistant tumor populations, including HPV-negative and PD-L1 low HNSCC.
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"Major advances beyond immune checkpoint therapies to expand and extend treatment benefits are needed for cancers whose activity may be limited by other resistance mechanisms, including expression of semaphorin 4D (SEMA4D), which binds receptors on myeloid cells to inhibit the migration and maturation of dendritic cells (DC) that are crucial for priming and expanding T cells in adaptive immune responses." said Maurice Zauderer, CEO at Vaccinex. "We are very excited to see that pepinemab treatment induced the formation of productive lymphoid structures within treated tumors and that this is associated with enhanced immune interactions and durable responses. We believe that novel modalities such as pepinemab can overcome limitations of ICI, particularly in patients who would not typically benefit from immune checkpoint monotherapy. We look forward to ongoing development of pepinemab combination therapies in metastatic and neoadjuvant settings."
Meeting: SITC 39th Annual Meeting
Date:
November 8, 2024
Poster Number: 747
Poster Title: Pepinemab a Semaphorin 4D blockade antibody in combination with immune checkpoint therapies induces mature lymphoid aggregates correlating with clinical outcomes
Presenter Crystal Mallow, Vaccinex, Rochester, NY, USA
About Pepinemab
Pepinemab is a humanized IgG4 monoclonal antibody designed to block SEMA4D, which can trigger collapse of the actin cytoskeleton and loss of homeostatic functions of astrocytes and glial cells in the brain and dendritic cells in immune tissue. Over 600 patients have been enrolled in clinical trials of pepinemab in different indications and pepinemab appears to be well-tolerated and to have a favorable safety profile.