22 August 2018 - - US-based immuno-oncology company Batu Biologics has filed a patent application covering methods of selecting patients likely to respond to ValloVax, the company said.

ValloVax is a placental endothelial cell based immunotherapy that is designed to stimulate an immune response against several antigens associated with tumor blood vessel formation, or angiogenesis.

By preselecting patients who are predisposed to have a stronger T cell mediated and antibody mediated immune response to the vaccine, Batu Biologics may be able to improve outcomes without the need to include toxic adjuvants in the formulation of the therapeutic product.

Traditionally, adjuvants are carefully selected to modulate an immune response to vaccine antigens of interest. In Batu Biologics' case, we are leveraging a natural understanding of transplantation immunology to optimize the immunogenicity of our vaccine.

Batu Biologics anticipates initiating a Phase 1/2 study for patients with metastatic non small cell lung cancer in the United States in late 2018.

The phase 1 component of the study will focus on evaluating the safety and immunogenicity of ValloVax at two different dose levels. The Phase 2 component of the trial will focus on demonstrating efficacy of ValloVax directly compared to the standard of care in a defined patient population.