Nouscom Demonstrates Preclinical Proof of Concept for Personalized Cancer Neoantigen Vaccine in Combination With Immune Checkpoint Blockade to Eradicate Large Tumors

BASEL, Switzerland, June 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Nouscom, an immuno-oncology company developing off-the-shelf and personalized cancer neoantigen vaccines, announced today the publication of a paper in the online edition of the peer-reviewed journal, Nature Communications, entitled: Adenoviral vaccine targeting multiple neoantigens as strategy to eradicate large tumors combined with checkpoint blockade (D'Alise et al, reference below). The authors describe results from preclinical studies investigating the immunological potency and efficacy of a vaccine based on an adenovirus vector derived from non-human Great Apes (GAd) that encodes multiple neoantigens.

The study demonstrated that a single administration of Nouscom's GAd vaccine can eradicate large tumors in mouse models when combined with anti-PD1 or anti-PD-L1 treatment and triples the efficacy of such checkpoint inhibitors in established tumors. Nouscom's GAd vaccine accommodates multiple neoantigens, up to 31 in these studies, and demonstrates strong and broad CD8+ and CD4+ neoantigen-specific T cell responses following vaccination. The results highlight the potential of these viral vector vaccines for development as personalized cancer vaccines.

Dr. Elisa Scarselli, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Nouscom, said: "We are very encouraged by these preclinical results. These exciting data confirm our hypothesis that our GAd vaccine synergizes with checkpoint inhibitors. It also establishes that anti-tumor efficacy positively correlates with the breadth and potency of T cell responses induced by vaccination, including the expansion of the intratumoral T cell repertoire. Our findings have a potential translational impact, suggesting that the changes in intratumoral T cell repertoire induced by the vaccination might be an indicator of treatment efficacy."

Dr. Scarselli added, "These findings provide compelling preclinical evidence that a vaccine encoding multiple neoantigens in combination with anti-PD1 or anti-PD-L1 may be an efficacious approach for the personalized treatment of cancers. We look forward to evaluating our approach with NOUS-PEV, a personalized cancer vaccine, in human trials, which we expect to start in 2020."

References

A.M. D'Alise et al. Adenoviral vaccine targeting multiple neoantigens as strategy to eradicate large tumors combined with checkpoint blockade, Nature Communications 2019.

Online publication: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10594-2

Nature Communications can be accessed at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10594-2

About Nouscom

Nouscom is a privately held oncology company developing next-generation immunotherapies. Nouscom's proprietary technology platform harnesses the full power of the immune response by combining viral vectored genetic vaccines based on neoantigens with other immunomodulators.

Nouscom is currently advancing the development of its lead program, NOUS-209, an off-the-shelf cancer vaccine based on shared frame-shift neoantigens, into clinical studies. The Company will also continue to develop its' product candidate, NOUS-PEV, a personalized cancer neoantigen- vaccine, which is expected to enter clinical studies in 2020.

Nouscom is led by an experienced management team that has worked together for many years in previous successful enterprises, including Merck, Novartis, and Okairos (acquired by GSK), and are veterans in the field of viral vectored genetic vaccines.

Nouscom, which was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland with operations in Rome, Italy, is backed by international life sciences investors: 5AM, Abingworth, LSP (Life Sciences Partners) and Versant Ventures.

For more information on Nouscom, please visit the company's website at www.nouscom.com  

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