The Imugene Ltd (ASX: IMU) share price is leaping higher today.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) biotechnology company closed on Friday trading for 89 cents. During the lunch hour on Monday, shares are swapping hands for 94 cents apiece, up 5.6%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is down 0.4% at this same time.
Here's what's piquing ASX 200 investor interest today.
What's driving ASX 200 investor interest?
The Imugene share price is racing higher after the biotech company announced that its Phase 1 metastatic advanced solid tumours trial evaluating the safety of novel cancer-killing virus CF33- hNIS (VAXINIA) has cleared the cohort 3 intratumoral (IT) arm of the monotherapy dose escalation study.
With that hurdle cleared, Imugene can now start to recruit patients for IT cohort 4 of the monotherapy dose escalation. This will see VAXINIA administered in three to six patients.
Commenting on the progress sending the Imugene share price higher today, CEO Leslie Chong said, "We continue to rapidly advance our monotherapy dose while the combination study continues its positive progress."
Chong added that Imugene remains "incredibly eager to bring the results of this trial to our shareholders, patients and the wider public".
According to the release, the City of Hope-developed oncolytic virus has been shown to shrink colon, lung, breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancer tumours in preclinical laboratory and animal models.
The study aims to recruit up to 100 patients across some 10 trial sites in the United States and Australia.
The trial commenced in May 2022 and is expected to continue for 24 months. Funding comes from existing budgets and resources.
At the end of the June quarter, Imugene had $153 million in cash or equivalents. The company said this provides it with "a runway to support its clinical pipeline and operations".
Imugene share price snapshot
Despite today's sizeable lift, the Imugene share price remains down 33% in 2023.
