IO Biotech reports data on IO102-IO103 vaccine in combination with KEYTRUDA

IO Biotech (IOBT) announced data from the NSCLC cohort in the company’s Phase 2 basket trial of IO102-IO103, the company’s lead investigational candidate, given in combination with Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy KEYTRUDA. These data, as well as new pre-clinical data from IO Biotech’s second vaccine candidate, IO112, will be presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s 39th Annual Meeting in Houston on November 8-10, 2024. The presentation contains clinical and biomarker data from the fully enrolled cohort of patients with previously untreated metastatic stage NSCLC with PD-L1 high TPS greater than or equal to 50. The data from 31 efficacy evaluable patients demonstrated: A 55% unconfirmed 48% confirmed overall response rate in a PD-L1 high population of patients with NSCLC; An 81% disease control rate; No disease progression at 12 months in approximately 50% of patients; An encouraging 8.1-month median progression-free survival; Median duration of response not yet reached; A safety profile consistent with previously reported data when combining IO102-IO103 with anti-PD-1 monotherapy; Vaccine-specific T cell responses to both IO102 and IO103 were detected in patients on treatment. To date, the safety profile observed in this study is consistent with prior studies of IO102-IO103 in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, with no unexpected systemic toxicity compared to anti-PD-1 monotherapy and low-grade transient injection site reactions reported as the most common treatment related adverse events. Data from the squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck cohort of this study were presented at the 2024 European Society for Medical Oncology congress in September that demonstrated the cohort met its primary endpoint of ORR with encouraging PFS data. Pre-clinical data from IO112, IO Biotech’s second therapeutic cancer vaccine candidate derived from the company’s T-win platform, also presented at SITC 2024: Arginase 1 plays a central role in immune suppression, and its overexpression has been reported in several cancers including renal cell carcinoma, pancreatic cancer, and head and neck cancer. Importantly, all immune suppressive myeloid cells in the TME express Arg1, and their key roles in cancer immune resistance mechanisms have been well described. The data presented in the poster showcase that IO112 vaccination leads to robust expansion of Arg1-specific T cells, which in turn directly target and reprogram immune suppressive TAMs, leading to tumor growth inhibition.