VBI Vaccines, Agenus Ink Partnership For Combination Brain Cancer Therapy

VBI Vaccines Inc VBIV and Agenus Inc AGEN collaborated to evaluate a combination therapy for brain cancer.
The partnership will assess VBI-1901, VBI's cancer vaccine immunotherapeutic, and balstilimab, Agenus' monoclonal antibody targeting the programmed death receptor-1 protein, in primary glioblastoma patients as part of the adaptive platform trial, INSIGhT.
Related: VBI Vaccines Reveals Updated Overall Survival Data From Brain Cancer Vaccine Trial.
Under the agreement, VBI will be the study sponsor and be responsible for the operational execution of the combination trial, and Agenus will provide drug supply and scientific support.
In the recurrent setting, VBI-1901 is in an ongoing Phase 2a study and has demonstrated encouraging tumor responses and improvement in overall survival compared to historical controls.
One of the patients with a partial response has been on the treatment protocol for over 2.5 years with a sustained tumor response reduction of 93% relative to baseline.
These tumor responses have translated to clinical benefit with a median overall survival rate of 12.9 months, which compares favorably to the 8-month overall survival historical control in the recurrent setting after treatment with a monotherapy.
Price Action: VBIV shares are up 3.06% at $0.6604 on the last check Wednesday.