Celldex Presents Data From Phase 1/2 Study Of Varlilumab And Opdivo

(RTTNews) - Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (CLDX) presented two programs at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago. Data from the Phase 1/2 study of Celldex's varlilumab, a CD27 targeting investigational immune-activating antibody, and Bristol-Myers Squibb's Opdivo or nivolumab, an anti-PD1 immunotherapy, for patients with ovarian cancer and colorectal cancer, were presented in an oral session by Rachel E. Sanborn, M.D., Co-director of the Providence Thoracic Oncology Program and Phase 1 Clinical Trials Program, at the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, in Portland, Ore.

In addition, an overview of the Phase 2 study of the anti-ErbB3 antibody CDX-3379 in combination with Erbitux in advanced head and neck squamous cell cancer was presented in a "clinical trials in progress" poster session.

"The data presented today continue to support that varlilumab holds considerable potential as an immune activator," said Dr. Sanborn. "This was particularly noteworthy in ovarian cancer where the combination with the anti-PD1 monoclonal antibody, Opdivo, turned "immune-cold" tumors "hot," which in turn correlated with improved clinical outcomes, including improved response rate and progression-free survival in these patients."

"Moving forward, we believe more work needs to be done to identify synergistic combinations and patient populations that have the best chance of responding to varlilumab treatment," said Tibor Keler, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Celldex Therapeutics. "We are continuing to explore these opportunities through inclusion in our ongoing Phase 1 study of CDX-1140, our CD40 agonist antibody, and several investigator-initiated studies."