Celldex launches rindopepimut Phase 3 trial in EGFRvIII-positive glioblastoma

Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLDX) today announced that it has launched a pivotal, randomized, double-blind, controlled Phase 3 trial of rindopepimut in patients with surgically resected epidermal growth factor variant III (EGFRvIII)-positive glioblastoma, the "ACT IV Study." US investigators have started screening patients for inclusion in the trial that is expected to enroll up to 440 patients internationally to recruit 374 patients with Gross Total Resection (GTR) for the primary analysis. Rindopepimut is a therapeutic cancer vaccine candidate that targets the tumor-specific oncogene EGFRvIII, which confers an enhanced capacity for unregulated tumor growth and which is present in many cancer cell types, but not present at significant levels in normal cells. Expression of EGFRvIII is linked to poor long term survival regardless of other factors such as extent of resection and age. EGFRvIII has been shown by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis to be expressed in approximately 31% of glioblastoma tumors.

"Rindopepimut has demonstrated significant potential to offer a new treatment option to patients suffering from glioblastoma, a disease with an extremely poor prognosis and few treatment options," commented Thomas Davis, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Celldex. "Celldex has worked diligently with both US and European regulatory authorities to design the ACT IV trial to rigorously evaluate the addition of rindopepimut to standard of care in EGFRvIII-positive glioblastoma patients. This international Phase 3 study will be conducted in a blinded fashion, comparing rindopepimut against a control arm receiving only a low-dose of keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH). KLH is a component of rindopepimut and was selected due to its ability to generate a similar injection site reaction to that observed with the rindopepimut vaccine," added Dr. Davis.

"Given the consistent encouraging clinical data from multiple previous trials of rindopepimut showing clear improvements in median Overall Survival and median Progression Free Survival to both matched historical controls and historical data with the standard of care treatment, we look forward to expanding on this body of evidence in the pivotal ACT IV study," said Anthony Marucci, President and CEO of Celldex. "The initiation of ACT IV is an important milestone for Celldex and we expect to make substantial progress in this trial throughout 2012. We are also planning to further expand on the clinical development program for rindopepimut in 2011 by initiating the Phase 2 ReACT study of rindopepimut in combination with Avastin^® in patients with recurrent or refractory glioblastoma."