Geneos Therapeutics Reports Positive Preliminary Results Of GNOS-PV02, A Personalized Vaccine, In A Phase I/II Clinical Trial In Patients With Second Line HCC

Geneos Therapeutics is pleased to report positive preliminary results of GT-30 of GNOS-PV02, a personalized vaccine, combined with pembrolizumab and plasmid pIL-12 in patients with HCC.

Geneos is a spin-out of Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: INO) in 2019. 

Commences treatment of 12 patients in GT-30 trial

GT-30 is the Phase I/II clinical study of GNOS-PV02. Geneos commenced GT-30 in 12 patients as of May 13, 2021. It administered the patients with at least one dose of the vaccine in combinational therapy. 

In the preliminary studies, the patients demonstrated tolerability and safety and not reported any adverse side effects. 

Ten patients reached the first on-treatment imaging time point of nine weeks to facilitate object response assessment by RECIST 1.1. Three patients achieved a PR (Partial Clinical Response) in the cohort, whereas four patients showed SD (Stable Disease). 

The overall response rate in the treatment is 30%, besides a disease control rate of 70%. According to Immune analysis of on-treatment and pre-treatment patient samples, the formulation demonstrated T cell clones expansion in the peripheral blood. It also showed T cells infiltration in the tumor tissues.

An Assistant Professor (Oncology) of Johns Hopkins University, Mark Yarchoan, will provide details on the benefits and clinical trial details of Geneos’s GT-EPIC platform in a poster presentation. 

Geneos will also present the data obtained from a patient with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using its IND.

The patient currently undergoes a monotherapy treatment using GNOS-PV02 and pIL12 after resection of the tumor. 

Geneos CEO, Niranjan Y. Sardesai, is encouraged with the interim data obtained from the GNOS-PV02 vaccine in a combination treatment. The drug showed dramatic improvement in shrinking the tumor. Niranjan further said the GT-EPIC platform could drive CD8 T Cells and provide a meaningful clinical response in intractable tumors. 

Raises $12 million

Geneos raised $12 million on March 3, 2021, by concluding the Series A1 round. It received strong participation from existing Series A investors, notably Inovio Pharmaceuticals and Santé Ventures. 

Mr. Sangwoo Lee said Geneos made significant strides in advancing the GT-EPIC platform to treat cancer. Lee is an MD of KIP (Korean Investment Partners) – USA Inc. He is the director on the board of Geneos.