On April 28, 2025 Calidi Biotherapeutics Inc. (NYSE American: CLDI) ("Calidi"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a new generation of targeted antitumor virotherapies, reported the selection of IL15 superagonist (Il15-IL15Ra) as the first payload to be delivered into tumors using its systemic antitumor virotherapy platform, RTNova (Press release, Calidi Biotherapeutics, APR 28, 2025, View Source [SID1234653211]). New preclinical data were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting on April 27, 2025, in Chicago, IL.

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The first candidate developed using RTNova is a vaccinia virus (virotherapy) that is engineered to be tumor selective and produced in an enveloped form that allows the virus to survive bloodstream circulation and reach metastatic tumor sites where viral replication can destroy cancer cells while also activating an immune response. RTNova can be further engineered to deliver transgenes or gene medicines for expression in tumor cells. Data presented at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) demonstrates that the ability of the enveloped virotherapy to express IL15 superagonist specifically in the tumor microenvironment measurably increases the number of complete responses, or tumor eliminations, in preclinical models after a single systemic administration.

"IL15 superagonist is a potent cytokine capable of generating robust and durable immune responses against tumors but can induce severe toxicity when administered systemically" said Antonio F. Santidrian, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Calidi. "By using tumor-targeted virotherapies systemically delivered to express therapeutic proteins like IL-15 superagonist directly into the tumor microenvironment, we believe we can effectively boost immune response against the tumors precisely where it is needed while minimizing systemic toxicity".

"While intratumoral use of oncolytic viruses has shown positive clinical results, their applicability has been limited to injectable cancers," said Eric Poma, PhD, Chief Executive Officer at Calidi. "Our RTNova platform builds on the clinical success of current intratumoral oncolytic viruses but is designed for systemic administration, allowing us to target metastatic disease patients with high unmet need. RTNova also allows for the delivery of payloads like IL-15 superagonist to the tumor microenvironment, inducing a profound anti-tumor immune activation."

With the RTNova platform, Calidi Biotherapeutics is pioneering the systemic delivery of virotherapies, a major step forward in treating metastatic cancers. This adaptable platform can also deliver different therapeutic payloads, allowing a bespoke approach to candidate design determined by the intrinsic properties of different tumor types.

A copy of the poster presented at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) featuring data on delivering IL15 superagonist is available here.

On April 28, 2025 BriaCell Therapeutics Corp. (Nasdaq: BCTX, BCTXW) (TSX: BCT) ("BriaCell" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that develops novel immunotherapies to transform cancer care, reported positive data from its Phase 2 study of lead product candidate, Bria-IMT, in metastatic breast cancer, and from its preclinical Bria-OTS+ platform at the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting taking place from April 25th – 30th at McCormick Place Convention Center, Chicago, IL (Press release, BriaCell Therapeutics, APR 28, 2025, View Source [SID1234652433]). In addition, Phase 3 early biomarker data will be presented as a late breaking abstract.

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The posters are summarized below and linked here: View Source

Title: Survival outcomes in a randomized phase 2 of Bria-IMT : An allogeneic whole cell cancer vaccine
Session Title: Phase II and Phase III Clinical Trials
Session Start: 4/28/2025 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM CST
Location: Poster Section 50
Poster Board Number: 18
Abstract Presentation Number: CT100

"The excellent survival responses reported in patients with different tumor types in the Phase 2 study is very exciting, and we look forward to seeing these promising data replicate in the pivotal Phase 3 study," stated Dr. William V. Williams, BriaCell’s President & CEO.

Of 54 metastatic breast cancer patients in the Phase 2 study, 37 patients received Bria-IMT formulation that is currently being used in BriaCell’s ongoing pivotal Phase 3 study (ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT06072612 ). Patients have been heavily pre-treated a median of 6 prior treatments — including Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) and check point inhibitors (CPIs).

Clinical benefit rates [CR, PR, SD] ranged from 45% to 100% based on subtype
Decrease in size or no change in all tumors noted in 83% of patients receiving Phase 3 formulation
Overall survival (OS) with the Phase 3 formulation was 17.3 months for HR+ patients and 11.44 months for patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC)
Overall response rate (ORR) for patients with intracranial metastases was 50% with a 75% clinical benefit rate
Safety profile: No unexpected adverse events, no treatment related discontinuation of therapy
Title: Bria-OTS+: A versatile therapeutic platform for inducing anti-cancer immunity
Session Category: Immunology
Session Title: Vaccines, In Situ Vaccines, and Vaccine Combinations
Session Date and Time: 4/28/2025 2:00 – 5:00 PM CST
Location: Poster Section 39
Poster Board Number: 29
Published Abstract Number: 3553

Miguel A. Lopez-Lago, PhD, BriaCell’s Chief Scientific Officer, commented, "We are very excited with the anti-cancer activity of Bria-OTS+ and expect the platform will enable the delivery of powerful and long-lasting immune activity against cancer."

"This data further validates the mechanism of action of our next-generation Bria-OTS+ platform. Additional immune activating factors are expected to enhance efficacy, and we look forward to replicating these results clinically as we advance our next generation Bria-BRES+ breast cancer and Bria-PROS+ prostate cancer programs," stated Dr. William V. Williams, BriaCell’s President and CEO.

Bria-OTS+ is an immunotherapy platform and enhanced version of Bria-OTS, BriaCell’s personalized pre-manufactured immunotherapy already demonstrating tremendous results as announced on April 24 2025 . Bria-OTS+ immunotherapy expresses multiple immune-activating cytokines and co-stimulatory molecules in addition to immune-boosting granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). Bria-BRES+ for breast cancer and Bria-PROS+ for prostate cancer are expected to be investigated in BriaCell’s upcoming Phase 1/2a clinical studies.

On April 28, 2025 enGene Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: ENGN or "enGene" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage, non-viral genetic medicines company, reported that management will present at upcoming investor conferences in May 2025. Details of the conferences are below (Press release, enGene, APR 28, 2025, View Source [SID1234652291]):

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Conference: 2025 Bloom Burton & Co. Healthcare Investor Conference
Date: Monday, May 5, 2025
Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
Format: Corporate Presentation

Conference: The Citizens Life Sciences Conference
Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Time: 11:30 a.m. ET
Format: Fireside Chat

A live webcast of these presentations can be accessed under the "Investors" section of the enGene website at www.engene.com and will be archived there for 90 days.

On April 28, 2025 Attivare Therapeutics, Inc., an innovative oncology company focused on the development of its ATTimmune biomaterial scaffold cancer therapies to treat patients across a range of solid and liquid tumors with significant unmet medical needs, reported it will present preclinical data for its novel ATT-01 and ATT-02 therapeutics in two poster presentations at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2025 (Press release, Attivare Therapeutics, APR 28, 2025, View Source [SID1234652290]).

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ATT-01 uses its ATTimmune platform technology, a silica-based, biodegradable scaffold (mesoporous silica rod, MSR), loaded with GM-CSF and CpG to induce differentiation of AML blasts in vitro, a significant vaccine-like T cell response, and durable remission in syngeneic murine models of AML.

Intratumoral ATT-02 combines the ATTimmune scaffold coupled with Interleukin 12 (IL-12) to show potent anti-tumor immunity compared to IL-12 alone in multiple single tumor syngeneic models and abscopal syngeneic models. Complete responses were observed in two colon carcinoma models (localized and abscopal) after a single dose of ATT-02. Of interest, ATTimmune alone had anti-tumor activity with delayed tumor progression and in vitro, shows a repolarization of macrophages to an immunogenic phenotype capable of driving T cell activation with addition of IL-12 enhances this effect.

"We are excited to present our preclinical data for ATT-01 and ATT-02 at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting," said David Sherris, President and Chief Executive Officer of Attivare Therapeutics. "Here, we present ATTimmune, a novel silica-based platform to deliver potent immune agonists to combat cancer. ATTimmune has advantages over other drug delivery technologies as it can bind a variety of therapeutic agents with a high payload, be it biologics, small molecules, gene therapy or even cellular technologies to its surface without alteration of the therapeutic agents. ATTimmune controllably releases drug over time within a 21-day period. Due to size, ATTimmune remains at its injected location thereby keeping drug where activity is required, as in the tumor microenvironment. As such, ATTimmune has the capability of reducing or eliminating toxicity for drugs having systemic toxicity."

Details of the poster presentations at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) 2025 are as follows:

Title: Delivery of CpG and GM-CSF in a novel silica-based scaffold leads differentiation of AML blasts and T cell-dependent immunity in syngeneic AML tumor models

Abstract Presentation Number: 3467
Session Title: Local Treatments, Novel Tools, and Delivery Systems to Manipulate Tumor Immunity
Session Date and Time: Monday, April 28, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. CT (3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET)
Location: Poster Section 37
Poster Board Number 6
Title: A single intratumoral injection of Il-12 bound to mesoporous silica rods generates effective anti-tumor immune responses and tumor growth control in multiple syngeneic tumor models

Abstract Presentation Number: 3476
Session Title: Local Treatments, Novel Tools, and Delivery Systems to Manipulate Tumor Immunity
Session Date and Time: Monday, April 28, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. CT (3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET)
Location: Poster Section 37
Poster Board Number 15

On April 28, 2025 Obsidian Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering engineered cell and gene therapies, reported the publication of an abstract with preclinical data from their cytoDRiVE platform for poster presentation at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) (Free ASGCT Whitepaper) Annual Meeting 2025 (Press release, Obsidian Therapeutics, APR 28, 2025, View Source [SID1234652289]).

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Obsidian will present novel applications of its cytoDRiVE platform, demonstrating the breadth and versatility of their regulation technology. To date, cytoDRiVE technology has been used to successfully regulate the timing and level of several different classes of therapeutic protein via fusion to drug-responsive domains (DRDs).1 In OBX-115, Obsidian’s lead clinical TIL program which has demonstrated promising activity in patients with ICI-resistant advanced melanoma2, this technology enables regulation of membrane-bound IL15 using the small-molecule drug acetazolamide.

The poster for abstract AMA30 expands beyond the direct DRD-fusion approach leveraged to-date, providing proof-of-concept for a novel approach whereby regulation of an artificial transcription factor is used to enable gene-ON and gene-OFF states with ligand binding. This approach unlocks numerous additional applications for cytoDRiVE, including the ability to regulate secreted proteins and expression of mRNA or siRNA. These capabilities become important in the context of gene and cell therapies where precise and variable genetic control is needed to manage disease, and where repeat dosing of other complex biologics is challenging.

Details of the poster presentation are as follows:

Title: Drug-responsive domains coupled with cognate small-molecule ligands drive synthetic gene-ON or -OFF circuits to regulate expression of therapeutic proteins (Abstract AMA30)
Presenting Author: Michael Gallo (Obsidian Therapeutics)
Poster: Tuesday, May 13, 6:00-7:30pm CT
Abstract: AMA30
1 Inniss et. al. Commun Biol 2025
2 Chesney, ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) 2025

About OBX-115
Obsidian’s lead investigational cytoTIL15 program, OBX-115, is a novel engineered tumor-derived autologous T cell immunotherapy (tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte [TIL] cell therapy) armored with pharmacologically regulatable membrane-bound IL15 (mbIL15). OBX-115 has the potential to become a meaningful therapeutic option for patients with advanced or metastatic melanoma and other solid tumors by leveraging the expected benefits of mbIL15 and Obsidian’s proprietary, differentiated manufacturing process to enhance persistence, antitumor activity, and clinical safety of TIL cell therapy. Obsidian is investigating OBX-115 in the phase 1/2 Agni-01 multicenter trial in patients with advanced solid tumors (NCT06060613).