Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU, OTC:IUGNF) welcomes news that the first patient has been dosed intravenously in its Phase 1 metastatic advanced solid tumours (MAST) study.
The study will evaluate the safety of novel cancer-killing virus CF33-hNIS (VAXINIA), and the patient was part of intravenous (IV) cohort 1.
This follows the recent announcement that intratumoral (IT) cohort 1 had cleared, paving the way for both cohort 2 of IT administration and cohort 1 of IV administration.
Virus shown to shrink tumours
The VAXINIA Phase 1 MAST study is a multicentre Phase 1 trial, that has to date delivered a low dose to patients with metastatic or advanced solid tumours who have had at least two prior lines of standard of care treatment.
The oncolytic virus, developed at the City of Hope Cancer Center, has been shown to shrink colon, lung, breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancer tumours in pre-clinical laboratory and animal models.
This study aims to recruit 100 patients across roughly 10 trial sites in the US and Australia.
Expansion on Australian trial underway
Earlier this week, Imugene announced it had received the DIR licence from the Australian Government’s Office of Gene Technology Regulator, allowing for expansion of the trial within Australia.
Imugene MD and CEO Leslie Chong said: “I’m very proud of our team and partners on the VAXINIA study who continue to push through the various requirements that come with running a clinical trial.
“We are eager to see the results from this new route of administration for the drug, in addition to that of the IT arm of the study.”