The Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU) share price is continuing its incredible run and charging higher again on Friday.
In early trade, the clinical-stage immuno-oncology company's shares were up a further 34% to 15 cents.
Its shares have since pulled back but remain up 14% to 12.5 cents at the time of writing.
Incredibly, this means they are up 130% since this time last week.
Why is the Imugene share price storming higher today?
Investors have been buying the company's shares today after it announced a major milestone.
According to the release, that major milestone is the dosing of the first patient in a Phase 1b clinical trial using azer-cel, manufactured and supplied from Imugene's state-of-the-art facility in North Carolina.
Azer-cel is an allogeneic off-the-shelf CD19 CAR T, which is a type of cell therapy. It is being trialled in patients with a blood cancer called non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL).
The patient was dosed at Banner Health in Phoenix Arizona and suffers from a difficult to treat sub-set of NHL called Diffuse-Large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).
Dr Paul Woodard, Imugene's chief medical officer, commented:
Patients with DLBCL who have relapsed after autologous CART therapy have limited therapeutic options and are an unmet medical need. New and effective therapies are needed for these patients.
Imugene's MD & CEO, Ms Leslie Chong, adds:
It is a great credit to our team that the Phase 1b study has been initiated and the first patient dosed, in under three months since acquiring the technology.
Following completion of the Phase 1b study, the company notes that there is potential to start a registrational study in 2024 and become the first approved allogeneic CAR T cell therapy for cancer.
