At the 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology ( ) in Chicago, Illinois, Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLDX) presented its phase II study results which a majority agrees were promising. The study which was conducted by the Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network was evaluating the effects of using a combination of CDX-301 and CDX-1401 in patients with malignant melanoma.
The study which involved a total of 34 patients gave overall response rate (ORR) of 15% with a median progression free survival (PFS) of 3.9 months.
Speaking about the results that seem to have met the study’s primary endpoint, Anthony Marucci, President and Chief Executive Officer of Celldex Therapeutics said that the duo medication has portrayed potentiality in being able to treat various cancer types that are considered difficult.
The potential in them now warrants further development given that their use generated significant NY-ESO-1 specific T cell responses. Besides, they did not have any side effects that would have led to discontinuation of treatment. They were found to be well tolerated an could possibly be added to the existing melanoma treatment prescriptions the likes of Opdivo and Yervoy.
Celldex has other potential candidates apart from CDX-301 and CDX-1401. Its pipeline also incorporates glembatumumab vedotin, varlilumab, and CDX-014. While glembatumumab vedotin is in its phase II level of study for triple negative breast cancer and metastatic melanoma, varlilumab is in numerous combined studies all which are about multiple types of cancer.
Being the first antibody-based combination immunotherapy company it seems like Celldex has been doing well having obtained Zacks Rank #3. Its antibody’s main focus is on Precision Targeted Immunotherapy Platform (PTI) which is a corresponding collection of monoclonal antibodies, antibody-targeted vaccines and immunomodulators.
Nevertheless it was way below ANI Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ANIP) and Retrophin Inc (NASDAQ:RTRX) which had a Zacks Rank #1. Acorda Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:ACOR) took a Zacks Rank #2.
Separately but still within ASCO meeting, the company also presented the study plan for its newly initiated Phase 2 trial of CDX-1307 in bladder cancer.
