The Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU) share price is climbing today following a development in the company's latest clinical trial.
The biotech company announced it had completed another leg in its trial for the treatment of lung cancer. It has also revealed the treatment's effectiveness in ridding one patient's tumour entirely.
At time of writing, the Imugene share price is up 8% at 43 cents.
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Phase 1a dose escalation completed
At its core, the Sydney-based biotech company is committed to developing cancer immunotherapy medicines, mainly for gastric and breast cancer.
However, its B-cell activating immunotherapy, called PD1-Vaxx, is now being trialled in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
In the announcement fuelling the Imugene share price today, the company says the drug has completed its phase 1a mono therapy dose escalation, and will now proceed to a 'combination' dose escalation.
The trial has been conducted in patients who had progressed on one or more immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), the company said.
Imugene managing director and chief executive officer Leslie Chong said:
I am 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 naive patients.
Our phase 1a trial has been open 12 months and I'm pleased with both the pace of development and the early responses seen. 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 snapshot
The Imugene share price has seen a dramatic year, increasing by 300% over the course of 2021. In fact, the Imugene share price was one of the best performing biotech shares of 2021, as it progressed with a number of drugs in its clinical portfolio.
The company saw its 52-week-high in November. This coincided with the announcement of a partnership with Eureka Therapeutics and a new clinical supply agreement with Merck KGaA (ETR: MRK) and Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE).
The biotech company has a market capitalisation of almost $2.5 billion and more than 5 billion shares issued.
