Evaxion Biotech picks candidate for lung cancer trial

A clinical-stage biotech company that specializes in developing AI-driven immunotherapies has chosen its product candidate for an upcoming clinical trial for patients with advanced lung cancer. 

Evaxion Biotech selected EVX-03 within its DNA technology platform to target a new indication based on what it said are very encouraging results from pre-clinical studies. 

EVX-03 is optimized with an APC-targeting unit (antigen-presenting cell), which has shown significant tumor reduction at very low doses as well as promising pre-clinical data with a clear dose-response relationship in all our preclinical models.

Lung cancer

Evaxion has decided to continue the development of EVX-03 in patients with advanced disease and plans to target non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EVX-03.

CEO Lars Staal Wegner said: “We are very pleased to announce that the data from EVX-03 is very encouraging on all parameters from anti-tumor effect to immunogenicity. That is why we are moving forward with EVX-03, as we firmly believe it will be able to make a difference in multiple indications.” 

He said within the EVX-03 program, the company plans to target non-small cell lung cancer as a new indication for this technology because of the vast unmet medical needs, a huge market potential, and the increased ability to demonstrate rapid proof-of-concept in the clinic. 

Technology opportunities

He added: “We believe that expanding the PIONEER platform into this new cancer indication will significantly broaden the opportunities for our technology.”

Evaxion has a DNA technology platform with two different product candidates with the second, EVX-02, currently being tested in a phase 1/2a clinical trial in patients with resectable melanoma. This ongoing clinical trial is expected to be finalized according to plan with a full clinical readout within the second quarter of next year (2023).