ASX 300 healthcare stock Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU) is catching the eye on Wednesday morning.
At the time of writing, the clinical stage immuno-oncology company's shares are up 14% to 12 cents.
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Why is ASX 300 healthcare stock Imugene rising?
Investors have been buying the company's shares this morning after it provided an update on its Phase 1 MAST (Metastatic Advanced Solid Tumours) trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of novel cancer-killing virus CF33-hNIS (Vaxinia).
According to the release, as of 12 January, 38 patients have been dosed with Vaxinia during the continuing dose escalation phase. This comprises 19 patients dosed intratumourally and 19 patients dosed intravenously as either monotherapy or in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda).
The company notes that 31 patients were evaluable for efficacy. In the intratumourally cohorts, 7 of 15 (47%) injected lesions had a reduction in tumour burden, 3 lesions were completely eradicated, and 3 patients (21%) had an objective response. In the intravenously cohorts, 53% of patients achieved stable disease as their best response.
Management commentary
The CEO of Imugene, Leslie Chong, was pleased with the data. She said:
This latest data reinforces the early positive responses we've seen in gastrointestinal cancers and in particular for cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer). It provides an excellent platform to investigate the impact of VAXINIA at higher dose levels as we also expand the trial to additional patients with hard-to-treat biliary tract cancers. It is a proud moment for us to be able to present these results at ASCO-GI, and promote the potential of VAXINIA and CF33 more broadly.
Despite today's gain, the Imugene share price is still down by approximately 25% over the last 12 months.
