The ASX 200 Health Index (XHJ) is trading higher by 0.30% at the time of writing, compared to the broader index which is also up by 0.87%.

Imugene (ASX:IMU) is up by 8% this morning, after confirming that its immunotherapy candidate, PD1-Vaxx, has completed a Phase 1a monotherapy dose escalation, and is now expected to proceed to combination dose escalation.

The monotherapy dose escalation was performed with 10, 50 and 100 micrograms of PD1-Vaxx in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

A review by the Cohort Review Committee (CRC) has confirmed the safety and tolerability at those doses, and has now advised Imugene to proceed to the combination phase of clinical development.

The primary objective of the Phase 1 trial is to determine safety of combining PD1-Vaxx with Roche/Genentech’s PD-L1.

“I’m encouraged that we are seeing positive signals at such an early stage of our PD1-Vaxx Phase I trial, and we are now progressing to the Phase 1b combination studies in treatment naïve patients,” says Imugene CEO Leslie Chong.

“It’s particularly gratifying to have followed a patient in the trial for over 12 months, where their tumour burden has been reduced to zero.”

Imugene share price today:

 

In other ASX health news this morning:

Cardiac ablation specialist Imricor Medical Systems (ASX:IMR)  signed a new deal with the Henry Dunant Hospital Centre in Greece.

This makes it the fourteenth Imricor site in Europe, and the first in Greece.

Imricor will help to outfit an existing MR facility for iCMR procedures, which are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2022.

An iCMR lab is an interventional lab that is fitted with MRI equipment for use in cardiac diagnostic and interventional procedures.

Imricor has added four sites in the last quarter of 2021, and the company says it will remain focused on growing its installed base across Europe in 2022.

Antiviral drug developer Island Pharmaceuticals (ASX: ILA), has signed a clinical trial support services agreement for its upcoming ISLA-101 Phase 2a PEACH study.

The agreement reached with ICON GPHS, a contract research organisation with significant expertise in clinical trials, will help Island to to coordinate, manage and conduct the PEACH study.

The Phase 2a PEACH trial will study the safety of lead drug ISLA-101 in dengue fever.

Meanwhile, AI-based medtech company LBT Innovations (ASX:LBT) has completed the acquisition of Clever Culture Systems (CCS).

Last week, LBT announced the acquisition of a 50% stake of CCS from a German company for $4m, taking LBT’s stake in CCS to 100% and making it a wholly-owned subsidiary.

CCS was established in 2013 to fund the development and commercialisation of LBT’s own APAS technology.

With several key milestones achieved in the last 12 months, LBT believed this was the opportune time to acquire 100% ownership of the CCS joint venture.

The Automated Plate Assessment System (or APAS) meanwhile, is based upon LBT’s intelligent imaging and machine learning software.

The platform remains the only US FDA-cleared AI technology for automated imaging, analysis and interpretation of culture plates following incubation.

Share prices today:

 

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