Targovax celebrates as TG02 passes initial planned safety review

Clinical stage company focused on developing immuno-oncology therapies to target solid tumours, Targovax ASA, announced on Monday that TG02 has passed the initial planned safety review in the phase Ib clinical mechanism-of-action trial evaluating TG02, and TG02 in combination with the checkpoint inhibitor ‘KEYTRUDA’ (pembrolizumab), in patients with confirmed RAS-mutated colorectal cancer.

The company said the safety review was carried out on the initial three patients enrolled in the first cohort, who were treated with TG02 as monotherapy.

It said no issues were reported, and it had been recommended that the trial should continue.

“This the first time TG02, the second generation RAS neo-antigen vaccine from the company's proprietary TG platform, has been administered to patients,” the Targovax board said in its statement.

“In February, the company published positive two-year survival data from TG01, its first generation vaccine from this platform, in resected pancreatic cancer.”
Early exploratory clinical results indicated that TG02 induces immune response in patients, with high activation status of tumour-infiltrating T-cells compared to historical controls.

In addition, the company said PD-1 expression was observed in both circulating and tumor-infiltrating T-cells.

That further strengthened the rationale for combining TG02 with PD-1 checkpoint blockade, the board added.

Based on the initial safety and immune activation findings, the company and investigators would discuss the appropriate timing for switching into the KEYTRUDA combination part of the trial, and start recruiting patients into the second cohort.

“This is the first time TG02 has been administered to patients, and we are very pleased that there were no issues reported in this initial safety review,” said Targovax chief medical officer Magnus Jäderberg.

“The early clinical data is also encouraging, indicating immune activation in vaccinated patients in a manner that is consistent with the drugs postulated mechanism of action.

“We are now eager to initiate the combination trial with KEYTRUDA, and we are hopeful that PD-1 blockade might boost the effect of TG02 vaccination.”