CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Neon Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology company developing neoantigen-based therapeutic vaccines and T cell therapies to treat cancer, today announced a clinical trial collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb. The collaboration will evaluate the combination of Neon Therapeutics’ proprietary personalized neoantigen vaccine, NEO-PV-01, and Opdivo® (nivolumab), a PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor.
Neon Therapeutics’ lead program, NEO-PV-01, is a fully personalized neoantigen vaccine based on DNA mutations from patients’ individual tumors. Opdivo is a human programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) blocking antibody that binds to the PD-1 receptor expressed on activated T-cells. The Phase 1b clinical trial will evaluate the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of NEO-PV-01 in patients receiving Opdivo in melanoma, smoking-associated non-small cell lung cancer and bladder cancer. The trial also will evaluate neoantigen-specific immune responses in peripheral blood and tumor tissue, as well as other indicators of immune response such as PD-L1 expression. Neon Therapeutics plans to initiate the study at multiple clinical sites in the U.S. in 2016.
“We are excited to be working with Bristol-Myers Squibb, a proven leader in immuno-oncology,” said Cary Pfeffer, M.D., interim chief executive officer of Neon Therapeutics. “We believe this collaboration will accelerate the development of fully personalized neoantigen therapies, and provide additional data around the potential synergy of complementary immune-mediated mechanisms of action.”
The study will be conducted by Neon Therapeutics. Additional details of the collaboration were not disclosed.
About Neon Therapeutics
Neon Therapeutics is an immuno-oncology company focused on developing novel therapeutics leveraging neoantigen biology to treat cancer. A neoantigen-based product engine will allow Neon to develop further treatment modalities including next-generation vaccines and T cell therapies targeting both personalized as well as shared neoantigens. Neon Therapeutics’ lead program is a personalized neoantigen vaccine that builds upon years of research and development at the Broad Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and is already in multiple clinical trials. For more information, please visit www.neontherapeutics.com.
