Vaccinex Completes Last Patient Visit in Alzheimer’s Disease Study

Biotechnology company, Vaccinex, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCNX), has completed the last patient visit in its randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind study of pepinemab treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Vaccinex said it expects to lock the trial database in June and is on track to report key outcomes in July.

Pepinemab has been well-tolerated in clinical trials that enrolled a total of more than 600 patients, and could represent attractive as a potential alternative treatment or possibly for use in combination with anti-Aβ to enhance the benefit to patients.

Vaccinex scientists have discovered that when key brain cells, known as astrocytes, undergo substantial changes they switch from normal supportive functions to neurotoxic inflammatory activity that is believed to accelerate and aggravate progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The company will test its hypothesis in its SIGNAL-AD study, evaluating the effect of treatment with pepinemab antibody to prevent the damaging consequences of astrocyte activation.

Vaccinex’s SIGNAL-AD study was funded in part by $4.75 million in investments from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), and by an $0.75 million grant from the Alzheimer’s Association.

About Vaccinex Inc.
Vaccinex, Inc. is pioneering a differentiated approach to treating slowly progressive neurodegenerative diseases and cancer through the inhibition of semaphorin 4D (SEMA4D). The Company’s lead drug candidate, pepinemab, blocks SEMA4D, a potent biological effector that it believes triggers damaging inflammation in chronic diseases of the brain and prevents immune infiltration into tumors. Pepinemab is being studied as a monotherapy in the Phase 1b/2 SIGNAL-AD study in Alzheimer’s Disease, with ongoing exploration of potential Phase 3 development in Huntington’s disease. In oncology, pepinemab is being evaluated in combination with KEYTRUDA® in the Phase 1b/2 KEYNOTE-B84 study in recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer (HNSCC) and in combination with BAVENCIO® in a Phase 1b/2 study in patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The oncology clinical program also includes several investigator-sponsored studies in solid tumors including breast cancer and melanoma.

Vaccinex has global commercial and development rights to pepinemab and is the sponsor of the KEYNOTE-B84 study which is being performed in collaboration with Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp, a subsidiary of Merck and Co, Inc. Kenilworth, NJ, USA. Additional information about the study is available at: clinicaltrials.gov.