Robert Stein
Analyst · Maxim Group. Your line is open
Thank you, Garo. We are very pleased to announce that we initiated a Phase I trial of Agenus-1884, our antibody drug candidate which targets the clinically and commercially validated immune checkpoint receptor CTLA-4. Looking ahead to the rest of the year, we and our partner Incyte expect to initiate additional checkpoint modulator antibody clinical trials. Earlier this month, at the AACR conference, we presented preclinical data showing that our two different CTLA-4 antagonist antibodies, 1884 and 2041, are functionally distinct with different Fc γ receptor binding activity expected to mediate either antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity or ADCC through natural killer cells in the case of the IgG1 isotype antibody 1884 or antibody dependent cellular phagocytosis or ADCP through macrophages in the case of the IgG2 isotype antibody 2041. We have also shown that CTLA-4 antagonist antibody synergize with our heat shock protein-based vaccines in preclinical mouse. We’ve demonstrated that both our CTLA-4 antibodies, slated for clinical development, enhance T-cell dependent vaccine responses in primate models. Notably, Agenus-1884 is expected to deplete intratumoral Treg cells, thereby enhancing the antitumor activity of T effector cells. At AACR, we also presented preclinical data, showing that our GITR agonist antibody, INCAGN1876, which is partnered 50-50 with Incyte, functions as a potent activator of GITR signaling in effector T-cells, and then in the context of suboptimal TCR signaling GITR binding by 1876 enhanced T-cell responsiveness only in the presence of TCR stimulation. Notably, the data also show a high-expression of GITR on intratumoral Treg cells from human tumor samples. And that these intratumoral Treg cells could be depleted by 1876 through the process of antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity or ADCC. These data support the idea that 1876 may have the potential to enhance T-cell responsiveness to weakly-immunogenic tumor antigens, while attenuating the immune suppressive function of intratumoral regulatory T-cells. At AACR, our scientists also presented preclinical data showing that the OX40 agonist antibody, INCAGN1949, which is partnered 50-50 with Incyte, enhanced antigen-specific T-cell responsiveness. 1949 is also expected to selectively deplete intratumoral regulatory T-cells based on preclinical models that we’ve run. 1949 was shown to prevent regulatory T-cells suppression of effector T-cells by inhibiting both the production of IL-10 and enhancing the production of IL-2. We also reported that OX40 selectively highly expressed by intratumoral regulatory T-cells from a variety of human tumor types, including colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, endometrial and ovarian cancer, and renal cell carcinomas. A key R&D objective for us this year is to continue to explore combinations of immune modulator based approaches involving our checkpoint modulating antibodies together with immune education approaches using vaccines. Specifically, we are evaluating combination studies of our Prophage autologous cancer vaccine with an antibody against the PD-1 checkpoint target, given the very encouraging Phase 2 data reported at ASCO last year in newly diagnosed glioblastoma, patients treated with Prophage plus standard of care. We expect to start Phase 1 trial of our first autologous synthetic vaccine or AutoSynVax, our new antigen vaccine candidate in the next 12 months. We introduced this new vaccine platform at our Analyst Day in November. ASV is our second generation autologous new antigen vaccine platform, and complements our first generation autologous vaccine platform, Prophage. While Prophage involves preparation of vaccines based on tumor tissue isolated from patients, ASV enables fully synthetic production of patient-specific recombinant vaccines, and therefore potentially unlimited quantities of individualized vaccines, which incorporate new antigens that are unique to the patient’s tumor. One of our goals is to combine our vaccines with our adjuvant QS-21 and with checkpoint modulating antibodies to create more efficacious immunotherapies for patients with cancer. Our recent acquisition of PhosImmune positions us as potential industry leaders in the use of aberrantly phosphorylated tumor cell proteins as new antigens for cancer vaccines. This approach is synergistic with our ASV vaccine platform and it increases the number and types of new antigens that can be included in the construction of AutoSynVax like vaccines and potentially allows us to create both off the shelf and patient-specific vaccines. Thank you for your attention. I’d now like to turn the call over to our CFO, Evan Ballantyne, who will review our financial performance.