The Immutep Ltd (ASX: IMM) share price is today flying as the company announced a number of results from its ongoing trials. The Immutep share price has gained a huge 20.45% today, rising to 26.5 cents at the time of writing.
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What Immutep does
Immutep is a biotechnology company headquartered in Australia. Immutep focuses on personalised bio-therapeutic products for the treatment of cancer. Its main product is eftilagimod alpha (IMP321), a soluble fusion protein, which is in clinical development for the treatment of cancer. Immutep has two other clinical candidates (IMP701 and IMP731) that are fully licensed to major pharmaceutical partners, and a fourth candidate (IMP761) which is in pre-clinical development.
The company was originally built on CVac, a therapeutic cancer vaccine. In late 2014, the privately held French immunotherapy company Immutep SA was purchased by Prima Biotech. It is now dual listed with one listing on the ASX and another as Immutep ADS Representing 10 Ord Shs (NASDAQ: IMMP).
INSIGHT-004 trial
The Immutep share price is soaring higher today as it was announced that the company saw improving results from the INSIGHT-004 trial. The trial is evaluating the combination of Immutep's lead product candidate, IMP321 with a human antibody (avelumab), in 12 patients with different solid tumours, primarily gastrointestinal.
In positive news for the biotech, 41.7% of patients showed a partial response to the combination therapy of IMP321 and avelumab (previously 33%). Furthermore, there was encouraging levels of anti-tumour activity signals in a variety of the cancer indications. These are usually not typically sensitive to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy.
On a final note, the combination of IMP321 and avelumab continues to be safe and well tolerated by patients.
TACTI-002 Study
The TACTI-002 study is being conducted in collaboration with Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK). The study is evaluating the combination of IMP321 with Merck & Co's Keytruda drug in patients with neck squamous cell carcinoma or lung cancer.
The study has produced three complete responses, with two in neck squamous cell carcinoma and one in lung cancer. A complete response indicated the complete disappearance of all lesions.
However it must be noted that, despite the improvement, the study has only produced a response in a total of 8 patients out of the 109 in the trial.
What now for the Immutep share price?
The improving results are great news for shareholders as the company seeks to return to its former highs. The Immutep share price has been on an impressive run since its lows in late March this year. The stock is up a huge 165% from its March low of 10 cents.
