IMMP - Immutep jumps 14% on mid-stage data for lead asset in lung cancer

2023-05-17 08:37:59 ET

Australian biotech Immutep Limited ( NASDAQ: IMMP ) added ~14% pre-market Wednesday after announcing that lung cancer patients who received its lead candidate efti, in combination with Merck’s ( NYSE: MRK ) Keytruda, recorded a median overall survival rate of 25 months.

The Phase 2 TACTI-002 trial, conducted in partnership with Merck ( MRK ), is designed to evaluate efti, also known as eftilagimod alpha, with anti-PD-1 therapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab).

The results from patients with non-small cell lung cancer (1L NSCLC) indicated that in the overall intent-to-treat (ITT) population, the treatment combo led to an initial median OS of 25 months as a first-line option in those with >1% PD-L1 expression.

According to Immutep ( IMMP ), the results are better than the OS rates reported for anti-PD-1 monotherapy and different immune checkpoint inhibitor combinations in patients with a similar level of PD-L1 expression with and without chemotherapy.

Given that TACTI-002 has a minimum follow-up of 14 months and after considering the readout, the Data Monitoring Committee has recommended extending the OS follow-up data collection to find three-year and potentially 5-year survival rates.

The company expects to disclose more mature data from the study at a leading medical conference in H2 2023.

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