VBI Vaccines, Agenus Ink Partnership For Combination Brain Cancer Therapy

• VBI Vaccines Inc (NASDAQ: VBIV) and Agenus Inc (NASDAQ: 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.

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