Lokon Pharma Announces Collaboration to Combine LOAd703 Oncolytic Virotherapy with Checkpoint Blockade in Pancreatic Cancer and Melanoma

Uppsala, Sweden, July 3, 2019 - Lokon Pharma AB - which is currently developing LOAd703, a potent double-armed (TMZ-CD40L/4-1BBL) oncolytic adenovirus, for solid malignancies - announced a collaboration with Roche combining LOAd703 and Roche’s anti-PD-L1 checkpoint antibody atezolizumab (Tecentriq®) in pancreatic cancer and melanoma. An ongoing phase I/IIa study (LOKON001) at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer will be expanded to include atezolizumab , and a new multicenter Phase I/II trial for checkpoint-resistant melanoma testing the same immunotherapeutic combination will be opened at the end of this year (LOKON003).

 “LOAd703, with two highly immunostimulatory genes, may have the capacity to act on these immunologically ‘cold’ tumors and sensitize them to checkpoint blockade antibodies,” said Dr. Angelica Loskog, the CEO of Lokon Pharma. She continues, “We are excited to combine LOAd703 with atezolizumab given our current study results and supporting preclinical in vivo data, and we feel fortunate to collaborate with Roche in these two distinctly different cancer indications that may benefit to the combination therapy.”

“The results from our ongoing clinical trial combining LOAd703 with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel demonstrate promising early clinical activity, and I am eager to see if adding atezolizumab to our current regimen can induce long-term survivors in this devastating disease. We hope to begin enrollment using the combination of LOAd703, atezolizumab, and gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel this fall,” said Dr. Benjamin Musher, principal investigator of LOKON001 at Baylor College of Medicine’s NCI-designated Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

www.lokonpharma.se