The Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU) share price is deep in the red today following a shock announcement from the company.
At the time of writing, the immuno-oncology company's shares are down 15% to 18.7 cents apiece.
It's worth noting that Imugene shares have extended their losses to around 23% in the past month.
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Imugene terminates supply contract
Investors are selling off Imugene shares after the company advised it has cancelled a supply agreement with MSD. The latter is a tradename of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co.
While no reason was given for the termination, Imugene is continuing with its clinical trial of HER-Vaxx.
The primary objective of the study is to determine the safety and efficacy of HER-Vaxx in combination with anti-PD-1 therapy.
The immunotherapy will be used for treatment of gastric, breast, ovarian, lung, and pancreatic cancers.
HER-Vaxx is a B-cell immunotherapy that has been shown in studies to "stimulate a potent polyclonal antibody response to HER-2/neu, a well-known and validated cancer target".
PD1-Vaxx has the advantage that it induces a unique polyclonal immune response that may increase response rates for therapy.
Imugene share price snapshot
Despite today's fall, the Imugene share price has managed to remain 1.32% in the green over the past 12 months.
However, when looking year to date, its shares are down by 52%.
Imugene shares reached an all-time high of 62.5 cents in November, before shifting to a downhill trend.
Based on today's price, Imugene has a market capitalisation of roughly $1.12 billion with approximately 5.85 billion shares on issue.
