Human Immunity is More Powerful than Cancer.
We Want to Help Realize its Potential.
There is a reason we are so focused on immuno-oncology at IMV. The advent of therapies that include checkpoint inhibitors is giving hope to thousands of patients who, even five years ago, had run out of options. But these therapies have serious limitations—not in potential efficacy, but in the number of patients predisposed to their benefits.
These cutting edge monotherapies typically provide lasting benefits to about 20 percent of patients, leaving a significant unmet need for the remaining 80 percent. How, then, do we safely and efficiently transfer the remarkable anti-cancer effects of these novel therapies across a wider range of cancers? How do we help more patients?
We are part of a global race to expand the breadth and depth of patients who respond to immunotherapy. The hallmark of our immuno-oncology program is to advance T cell-activating therapies that can activate and direct T cell responses, a mechanism of action (MOA) that can be synergistically combined with other approaches, including immuno-modulators and checkpoint inhibitors. We believe that this approach will help significantly expand the number of patients who can be helped by today’s most promising treatments.
The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) convened a Combination Immunotherapy Task Force that identified a roadmap to help broaden the efficacy response for modern immunotherapies:
- Next-generation immuno-modulating therapies, such as anti-PD-1 agents, will remain the backbone of combination therapies, with extensive clinical benefit and tolerable side effects.
- The patients who do respond to these therapies exhibit a high degree of T cells that are already recognized by the immune system.
- The potential to expand and enhance the clinical benefits of monotherapies will be dependent on combining agents with synergistic mechanisms of action.
- In particular, enabling combination therapies that increases T cell production and infiltration has the potential to expand the range of patients beyond the 20 percent responsive to these monotherapies alone.
Making Cancer Tumors More Vulnerable. A Stronger, More Durable Immune Response
Our platform is primed to be a key T cell activating technology. Our lipid-based formulation has a unique effect, which prolongs the immune system’s interaction with the active ingredients and results in a stronger, more sustained response. Our candidates are also able to work synergistically, combining with other immunotherapy agents to enable anti-cancer activity among multiple pathways.
While there are tremendous challenges ahead, the unique MOA of our platform is optimally positioned to be key components of this moonshot, with their:
- Capacity to work with most cancer antigens
- Ability to stimulate potent and sustained immune responses and promote tumor T cell infiltration
- Ease of administration and applicability to most cancers types
- Synergistic MOA with other anti-cancer agents, including anti-PD-1 inhibitors