Agenus’ lead can­cer vac­cine flops, in­ves­ti­ga­tors read last rites over glioblas­toma PhII

Just days af­ter hand­ing over the reins on a big an­ti­body col­lab­o­ra­tion to In­cyte, Agenus is now slam­ming the brakes on its top can­cer vac­cine tri­al, con­ced­ing a flop.

The Lex­ing­ton, MA-based biotech $AGEN says an in­de­pen­dent da­ta mon­i­tor­ing com­mit­tee over­see­ing the Phase II com­bi­na­tion study of its can­cer vac­cine Prophage with Avastin (be­va­cizum­ab) found no en­cour­age­ment that the vac­cine — made of heat shock pro­tein-pep­tide com­plex­es tak­en from a pa­tient’s tu­mor tis­sue — was any bet­ter than be­va­cizum­ab alone in pro­long­ing sur­vival among brain can­cer pa­tients.

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