Immutep Limited (ASX:IMM) CEO & Executive Director, Marc Voigt, provides an update on the company's clinical trials, including its Phase IIb AIPAC study into metastatic breast cancer.Jessica Amir: Thank you for tuning in to the Finance News Network, I'm Jessica Amir and with me today for an update from Immutep
(ASX:IMM) is CEO Marc Voigt. Marc, welcome back and great to see you in Sydney.
Marc Voigt: Thank you very much, pleasure to be here.
Jessica Amir: So first up, you've got a lot of data coming out in the coming months. Just tell us what we can expect.
Marc Voigt: Yeah, we really have a lot of data coming from almost all of our clinical trials, especially for Eftilagimod alpha, our only product candidate, the immune modulator. So there we have AIPAC, our largest clinical trial. We expect data in first quarter next calendar year. We have TACTI-mel final data towards end of this year. In sight, there should also be data later this year as well as TACTI-002, a trial which we conduct together with Merck (NYSE:MRK), and there we expect also data already mid of this year and then later this year as well.
Jessica Amir: So then, just honing in on AIPAC, what can we expect?
Marc Voigt: AIPAC is so called double blind, placebo controlled randomised clinical trial. So, very high quality clinical trial design. Should deliver an objective result, double blind means neither the patient nor the physician knows who gets placebo or the drugs, so it is a very objective way to run a clinical trial. It's randomised and there we can expect progression-free survival data, overall response rate in first quarter next year, it's a so called event driven readout, so meaning that the progression of the patient or a certain number of progressions of the patients will drive that readout and it's of course very important given the nature of that clinical trial.
Jessica Amir: And so if Efti is approved, and it lands on shelves, what will it mean for patients suffering from metastatic breast cancer?
Marc Voigt: We may have the chance to have the basis for approval with the upcoming clinical trial results and if the drug would be approved in metastatic breast cancer first line chemotherapy this is our set, so to speak. That would change the existing standard of care for women with metastatic breast cancer, eligible for first line chemotherapy. So of course, we would hope for a better quality of life, for prolonged, overall survival, prolonged progression-free survival and better response rates. So could be really decisive for the patients and of course, subsequently also for the company.
Jessica Amir: And Marc, you started two new trials during the year, just tell us about those, and also the work that you're doing with big pharma.
Marc Voigt: Yeah, indeed, on the one hand side we started our trial so called TACTI-002, trial where we collaborate with Merck (NYSE:MRK) for KEYTRUDA or Pembrolizumab.
Importantly also in the United States first time that we received an IND [Investigational New Drug status assigned by the FDA] in the United States. So this trial is recruiting very, very well. We have now more than 20 patients being recruited in lung cancer, head and neck cancer so that goes well.
And also the other clinical trial which we conduct in conjunction with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and German Merck, so Avelumab plus Efti goes also very well. The first patients have been recruited. We're very happy with the status and for both clinical trials, we actually expect interim data in the remainder of this year.
Jessica Amir: And Marc, just lastly before we let you go, with all this data and work in the pipeline, can you explain how this is going to add value to Immutep
(ASX:IMM) and hopefully, its share price?
Marc Voigt: Yeah, the data is indeed is decisive because there we will see if we have here a phenomenal drug or if we need to do better. I'm quite hopeful in that respect, especially then considering the multi-billion dollar markets we are working on. I mean, just take KEYTRUDA for instance as an example. This year, expected to make close to US$10 billion annual sales and we are really at the point now where we see decisive data with AIPAC, with TACTI-002 where we can play a very important role in the Immuno-oncology space, a multi-billion dollar market again. This ultimately is hopefully then being reflected in our share price and in our value.
Jessica Amir: Well, thank you so much for the update, it's been very informative. Marc Voigt, thank you.
Marc Voigt: Thank you so much, it was a pleasure to be here.
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