The Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU) share price is through the roof today, breaking record highs.
At the time of writing, shares in the medical research and development company are up 11.5%, trading at a record high of 14.5 cents each. By comparison, the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is 0.58% higher.
Today's positive price movement comes as the company made a major announcement on its latest medical treatment.
Let's delve deeper and see how it's affecting the Imugene share price.
What's pushing the Imugene share price higher?
In today's ASX statement, Imugene advised that Phase I trials of its lung cancer vaccine, PD1-Vaxx, would "proceed to the third and final highest dose cohort".
The company said an independent expert committee found the vaccine safe for humans at the mid-level dosage of 50 micrograms. The trial will now proceed to the full dosage of 100 micrograms.
According to the company, the results showed that one patient's tumour almost completely disappeared after 6 weeks, while three others stabilised. One patient's disease, however, did further progress. After 85 days, the status of two patients was unchanged.
Imugene says these early results are promising signs of the vaccine's efficacy. The company also advised that the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, had received approval to join the Phase 1 clinical trial of PD1-Vaxx in the United States.
Stakeholder commentary
Principal investigator, Professor Gary Richards of Cabrini Hospital, Melbourne, said
I am excited to hear the Cohort Review Committee recommended opening the third and final dose cohort based on the outstanding safety and tolerability of PD1-Vaxx reviewed to date.
Imugene managing director and CEO Leslie Chong added:
Phase 1 trials are generally designed to look for safety, tolerability and early response signals to determine the optimal dose for further development. I am encouraged that we are seeing positive signals at such an early stage of our PD1-Vaxx Phase I trial.
Imugene share price snapshot
Over the last 12 months, the Imugene share price increased by 625% and is now at an all-time high. In fact, in the past 6 months, the company's share price value has increased by 141%.
At its current share price, Imugene has a market capitalisation of $676.8 million.
