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Immutep delivers major breakthrough with 59.6% response rate in lung cancer trial

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By Colin Hay - 
Immutep ASX IMM efti High Response First-Line Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
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Late-stage biotechnology specialist Immutep (ASX: IMM) has achieved significant improvement in response rates compared to historical controls in a trial evaluating its first-line non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment candidate.

The assessment of eftilagimod alpha (efti) with Keytruda and chemotherapy has achieved high response rates in the multi-centre INSIGHT-003 trial, an investigator-initiated study conducted by the Frankfurt Institute of Clinical Cancer Research and several other German centres.

In Australia, the total health service costs for treating NSCLC can average around $55,368 per case over three years.

Significant improvement

Immutep reported that data from all evaluable patients demonstrated significant improvement in overall response rate across all levels of death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression compared to the historical control from a registrational trial of anti-PD-1 and doublet chemotherapy in non-squamous first-line treatment for NSCLC.

The company said the relative outperformance was particularly strong considering the registration trial had four times as many patients with high PD-L1 expression, who typically have the highest response rates.

Importantly, in patients who have a high unmet need and represent over two-thirds of the first-line NSCLC patient population, the triple combination with efti achieved a 59.6% response rate compared to a historical control of 40.8%.

Growing confidence

“Our level of confidence in efti driving a new standard of care for patients with NSCLC via our pivotal TACTI-004 trial continues to rise with the strength of the data from INSIGHT-003 and TACTI-002,” Immutep chief executive officer Marc Voigt said.

“Across two trials, we now have efficacy data from 165 patients with first-line NSCLC who have been treated with efti and Keytruda, either with or without chemotherapy.”

“In particular, the interim objective response rate data in patients with programmed PD-L1 expression below 50% in the ongoing INSIGHT-003 trial—who represent over two-thirds of the first-line NSCLC patient population—is very encouraging.”