Two new personalised, neoantigen cancer immunotherapies, from the French biotech Odimma Therapeutics and China’s Abogen, are set to enter clinical trials. Their originators will no doubt hope to do better than the industry’s most prominent similarly acting therapies, Moderna/Merck’s intismeran autogene and BioNTech/Roche’s autogene cevumeran, which have a somewhat mixed track record.
Abogen’s ABO2109 started phase 1 last month, while Odimma’s ODI-2001 is expected to do so in November, according to the latest new listings on the clinicaltrials.gov registry. Notably, the settings in which the two are to be tested differ, perhaps reflecting design differences in the technologies that lie behind them.
The first-in-human study of ABO2109 concerns adjuvant treatment of solid tumours, with or without Loqtorzi. This appears to be a relatively safe bet on a treatment setting where tumours tend to be immunogenic; it’s adjuvant melanoma, for instance, that holds the greatest promise for Moderna’s inti-gene, while work in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma was quietly dropped.
On demand
These types of immunotherapies are raised on demand based on the neoantigens present in each patient’s tumour, and inti-gene as well as BioNTech/Roche’s auto-ran are both delivered using mRNA. The latter has had considerably less success, including study failures and a clinical hold.
Abogen has so far revealed little about the design of ABO2109, but this is known also to use delivery via mRNA, which is the basis for all of the company’s work.
For its part Odimma is taking a different line with ODI-2001, which uses a synthetic DNA delivery vector. In addition, this is combined with Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) and an anti-CTLA-4 MAb, the aim being to deliver the neoantigens in a highly immunogenic context, with the dual adjuvants activating and amplifying the immune response.
Odimma, which was founded in 2017, is targeting metastatic or locally advanced colorectal or pancreatic cancers as the first phase 1 settings for ODI-2109. The group appears to have raised no money beyond €1m and €2m seed financing rounds in 2020 and 2023.
Recently disclosed first-in-human studies*
Among other new entrants into clinical testing there are three assets with undisclosed mechanisms, from Johnson & Johnson, Immunome and Jiangsu HengRui.
Immunome is pursuing various technologies, aiming this year to file the small-molecule gamma secretase inhibitor varegacestat, while advancing a radiotherapeutic into clinical testing. Next comes its shot at ADCs, with the anti-ROR1 asset IM-1021 set to deliver lymphoma data this year; IM-1617 has an undisclosed target, but is said to be a “first-in-class solid tumour ADC”.
Finally, interest in PRMT5 inhibition continues, despite Amgen’s recent discontinuation of AMG 193. The next clinical entrant here will be Chipscreen’s CS08399, due to enter human testing in June.
