Heat Biologics Commences Patient Dosing In Phase 2 Study Of Viagenpumatucel-L For The Treatment Of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Heat Biologics, Inc. ("Heat Biologics", "Heat" or the "Company")

, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of cancer immunotherapies, announced today that it has initiated dosing in its Phase 2 trial of Viagenpumatucel-L (HS-110) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer ("NSCLC"). HS-110 is Heat's most advanced product candidate in a series of proprietary Immune Pan Antigen Cytotoxic Therapy ("ImPACT") based allogeneic cell lines designed to direct killer T cells to attack cancer. Roger B. Cohen, M.D., Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Associate Director for Clinical Research for the Abramson Cancer Center is Lead Investigator of the Phase 2 trial. Dr. Cohen commented, "NSCLC is still the most common lethal cancer. The unmet need in this disease is huge. Recent encouraging data with various immune checkpoint inhibitors suggest that NSCLC may, in fact, be susceptible to an immune therapy approach. Heat's biologic immuno-oncology product candidate, HS-110, has a novel composition and mechanism of action that builds on decades of immunotherapy research. I look forward to seeing the effects of HS-110 on immune response and outcome in my patients." The multicenter, randomized Phase 2 trial will enroll approximately 123 patients with NSCLC who have failed two or three prior lines of therapy. The clinical study will evaluate the safety and efficacy of HS‑110 in combination with low-dose cyclophosphamide. The Phase 2 protocol is specifically designed using low-dose cyclophosphamide as a modulator of immunosuppression which is expected to enhance the encouraging signals of efficacy observed in the Phase 1 trial of HS-110 as a monotherapy. After 14 patients have been treated for nine weeks with Viagenpumatucel-L and cyclophosphamide, an interim analysis of the immune response data will be conducted. The Company expects to report these interim immune response results in the first half of 2015. "Dosing the first patients with HS-110 in our NSCLC Phase 2 study is an exciting and significant milestone for the Company," said Jeff Wolf, Chief Executive Officer of Heat. "Our Phase 2 lung cancer study is designed to gauge the effectiveness of our approach in late stage NSCLC patients in a controlled setting, allowing us to design pivotal trials more effectively." During the trial, immune response and a large group of experimental endpoints will be correlated with patient outcomes with the goal of achieving proof of concept and identifying patients who are most likely to benefit from HS-110.