Ultimovacs has started dosing of the second cohort in the Phase I TENDU trial, evaluating the company’s Tetanus-Epitope Targeting (TET)-platform.
The TENDU clinical trial, conducted at the Oslo University Hospital, is a first-in-human, dose-escalation study designed to generate initial safety and immune activation data for a prostate cancer-specific therapeutic TET-based vaccine in prostate cancer patients who have relapsed following radical prostatectomy. Three different and escalating doses of the TET vaccine are being investigated in the study, 40, 400 and 960 μg. Dosing of the 400 μg cohort has now been initiated.
Read more: Interview: Jens Bjørheim, Chief Medical Officer, Ultimovacs
“We are pleased to continue to advance this Phase 1 trial evaluating Ultimovacs’ TET platform in prostate cancer. The 400 μg dose, which we are now investigating, is in a clinically relevant range predicted by preclinical studies,” says Jens Bjørheim, Chief Medical Officer of Ultimovacs. “We are looking forward to continuing to investigate this new therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine, which has the potential to address a significant medical need by reducing recurrence of the disease. The TENDU study is also important for us as a way of generating initial data on the novel TET platform, as we further expand the Ultimovacs pipeline.”
The TET platform
The TET platform allows for the production of multiple therapeutic cancer vaccines that can be used to strengthen and increase T cell responses to cancer cells by targeting antigens that are specific to one type of cancer or common to many tumor types. The vaccine used in the TENDU trial contains prostate cancer-specific antigens. By combining cancer antigens and the vaccine adjuvant in the same molecule, this unique platform can generate vaccine candidates with a beneficial safety and administration profile, presenting an opportunity to treat patients at an early stage of their disease.
Photo: Ultimovacs
