Encouraging clinical results for Nouscom’s lead molecule

NOUS-209 is Nouscom's lead candidate and has been developed from its proprietary heterologous prime/boost viral vector platform, which combines viral vector vaccines based on neoantigens, with other immunomodulators to harness the full power of the immune response. NOUS-209 is in Phase 1 clinical trial in combination with the anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab in US patients with gastric, colorectal and gastro-esophageal junction MSI tumors.

The encouraging results were presented at the European Society of Molecular Oncology (ESMO) congress. The primary author of the poster is Michael Overman, Principal Investigator (PI) of the trial and Professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Michael Overman said: "There is still a significant unmet need in the treatment of MSI-H tumors, with many patients not responding to a single agent immunotherapy. The technology developed by Nouscom is innovative and looks to address this issue – the Phase 1 results are very encouraging, and this data provides exciting early validation of the multi-neoantigen approach in humans, supporting the compelling preclinical data seen previously. I look forward to reporting on the fully enrolled Phase 1 results.''

"Presenting the first clinical dataset from our lead candidate NOUS-209 for the treatment of MSI-H solid tumors at ESMO, a major oncology conference, is an important milestone for Nouscom." Marina Udier, Chief Executive Officer of Nouscom added. "We are very pleased to have demonstrated NOUS-209 is safe, highly immunogenic and shows early signs of clinical efficacy. NOUS-209 leverages a core strength of the company's platform, namely the capacity of its proprietary viral vectors to encode a large number of neoantigens."

(Press release / SK)