Immunovaccine Collaborates With Incyte to Evaluate Novel Immunotherapy Combination for Patients With Platinum-Sensitive Ovarian Cancer

Immunovaccine Inc. ("Immunovaccine" or the "Company") (TSX:IMV) (OTCQX:IMMVF), a clinical stage vaccine and immunotherapy company, today announced that it has entered into a non-exclusive clinical trial collaboration with Incyte Corporation (Nasdaq: INCY) to evaluate the combination of Immunovaccine's novel T cell activating immunotherapy, DPX-Survivac, with Incyte's investigational oral indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) inhibitor, epacadostat (INCB24360). Immunovaccine and Incyte will co-fund and conduct a multicenter, open-label Phase 1B study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of the novel combination in platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer patients who are at high risk of recurrence. The investigational new drug (IND) application for the study, which will test the triple combination of DPX-Survivac, epacadostat and low dose oral cyclophosphamide, is expected to be filed this year in the U.S. and Canada and the study is expected to enroll approximately 20 patients. Results from this study may lead to an expansion of the clinical collaboration to investigate other cancers. "DPX-Survivac and epacadostat represent two exciting classes of immune based therapies with promising activity demonstrated in clinical trials," said Marc Mansour, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Immunovaccine. "We believe a multi-pronged immune-based treatment approach may be favorable as an alternative to chemotherapy for recurrent ovarian cancer disease." "We believe that combining immune-targeted therapies may hold great potential in oncology," said Rich Levy, MD, Chief Drug Development Officer of Incyte. "This clinical trial collaboration further demonstrates our commitment to efficiently testing our selective IDO1 inhibitor with other promising immunotherapies." DPX-Survivac and epacadostat both target pathways that have been linked to cancer progression, namely survivin and IDO1. High levels of survivin and IDO1 are found in a broad range of cancers, including ovarian cancer, and individually have been shown to correlate with poor patient outcomes. DPX-Survivac is designed to activate T cells of the immune system to recognize survivin-expressing cancer cells. Epacadostat, on the other hand, is designed to inhibit IDO1-mediated immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment. It is therefore hypothesized that co-administration of these immunotherapies may lead to enhanced anti-tumor effects by both activating the immune system to recognize the cancer and simultaneously weakening its defenses.