Chimeric leaps 65pc, Immutep over 11pc this morning. Picture Getty
Health & Biotech
Chimeric Therapeutics (ASX:CHM) leapt as high as 65% this morning after reporting positive new data for its Phase 1A CLTX CAR T brain cancer clinical trial.
The trial investigated CLTX CAR T in heavily pretreated, late stage, recurrent glioblastoma patients at the City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organisations in the US.
Patients treated in the Phase 1A trial were heavily pre-treated, on average receiving CLTX CAR T as 4th line therapy (range 3-5th line).
Results showed that across all four dose levels of the trial, those patients achieved a 55% Disease Control Rate, exceeding expectations and historical disease control rates of 20-37% for patients treated in 2nd line.
Around 10 months median survival was also demonstrated in patients that achieved this disease control. In previous studies, survival expectations for patients after the first line therapy are generally only ~7 months.
Two patients meanwhile demonstrated survival beyond 14 months, with three patients in ongoing follow up.
These results suggest that CLTX CAR T was generally well tolerated, with no dose limiting toxicities (DLTs), no Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS) and no Tumor Lysis Syndrome (TLS).
Grade 3 events were generally manageable, and most often attributed to disease progression.
Based on these results, Chimeric has now advanced development of CLTX CAR T to a Phase 1B clinical trial currently open for enrolment at the Sarah Cannon Transplant & Cellular Therapy Program at St David’s South Austin Medical Center in Austin, Texas.
“We are actively enrolling patients in our Phase 1B dose confirmation trial, and now look forward to advancing our study to a dose expansion cohort in 2024,” said Dr Jason Litten, chief medical officer of Chimeric Therapeutics.
Immutep (ASX:IMM) surged 11% after announcing excellent new clinical data from the TACTI-002/KEYNOTE-798 Phase II trial evaluating its lead drug, eftilagimod alpha (efti).
Efti is a soluble LAG-3 protein being tested in combination with Merck & Co’s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) as first-line treatment for patients with previously untreated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Results showed that Median Overall Survival (MOS) reached 35.5 months in first-line treatment of NSCLC patients expressing PD-L1 that have tumour proportion score (TPS) of >1%.
Results also showed MOS of 23.4 months in patients with low PD-L1 expression (TPS 1-49%), and MOS has not been reached in patients with high PD-L1 expression (TPS >50%).
The results also showed promising Overall Survival, Overall Response Rate, Progression Free Survival, and Duration of Response visible across all PD-L1 subgroup.
Immutep says these outcomes differentiate efti in combination with KEYTRUDA from other chemotherapy-free immuno-oncology combinations in non-small cell lung cancer.
“The strength of the data positions us well as we continue to plan and prepare for our Phase 3 trial that we expect to launch next year,” said Immutep CEO, Marc Voigt.
Health imaging stock, ProMedicus (ASX:PME), announced that its wholly-owned US subsidiary, Visage Imaging, has signed an $16 million, eight-year contract with South Shore Health, the largest independent health system in Southeastern Massachusetts.
The Visage solution will replace the legacy PACS system throughout South Shore Health, and includes the full stack of Visage 7 Viewer, Visage 7 Open Archive and Visage 7 Workflow.
All these Visage 7 platforms will be implemented in the cloud.
South Shore Health includes the 393-bed South Shore Hospital, and employs more than 5,600 employees.
PME says the hospital joins an increasing list of Visage 7 clients to opt for a fully cloud-engineered solution, a trend that is becoming the standard in the North American healthcare IT market.
Health & Biotech
Health & Biotech
Health & Biotech
Get the latest Stockhead news delivered free to your inbox.
