Biotech Alert: Searches spiking for these stocks today

These names in the biotech sector are seeing a substantial increase in search activity today, as determined by InvestingChannel. They include:

• CEL-SCI Corporation (CVM), 1.944% surge in interest
• Harpoon Therapeutics (HARP), 186% surge in interest

Pipeline and key clinical candidates for these companies:

CEL-SCI said it “believes that boosting a patient’s immune system while it is still intact should provide the greatest possible impact on survival. Therefore, in the Phase 3 study, CEL-SCI studied patients who were newly diagnosed with locally advanced primary squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with the investigational product Multikine first, before they received surgery and radiotherapy or surgery plus concurrent radiotherapy and chemotherapy.” This approach is called neo-adjuvant. Most other cancer immunotherapies are administered only after conventional therapies have been tried and/or failed. Multikine received Orphan Drug designation from the FDA for neoadjuvant therapy in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (cancer) of the head and neck. Multikine is designed to help the immune system “target” the tumor at a time when the immune system is still relatively intact and thereby thought to be better able to mount an attack on the tumor. CEL-SCI has completed a 928 patient Phase 3 clinical trial in locally advanced primary head and neck cancer patients.

Harpoon Therapeutics is developing a novel class of T cell engagers that harness the power of the body’s immune system to treat patients suffering from cancer and other diseases. “Using its proprietary Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct, or TriTAC, platform, Harpoon is developing a pipeline of novel TriTACs initially focused on the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Harpoon has also developed a proprietary ProTriTAC platform, which applies a prodrug concept to its TriTAC platform to create a therapeutic T cell engager that remains inactive until it reaches the tumor. Harpoon’s third proprietary technology platform, extended release TriTAC-XR, is designed to mitigate cytokine release syndrome,” the company states.

Recent news on these stocks:

October 23

CEL-SCI Corporation announced that it has finalized the selection criteria for the head and neck cancer target population to be treated with the Company’s immunotherapy drug Multikine or Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection . Five-year survival in the target population was 73% alive for Multikine-treated patients vs only 45% alive in the control who did not receive Multikine, with the five-year risk of death cut in half for Multikine-treated subjects in the target population versus the control. These data, which are statistically significant and accompanied by strong hazard ratios, are a crucial achievement on the path for the approval of Multikine. CEL-SCI presented the data for the first time at the European Society for Medical Oncology ESMO Congress in Spain on October 22 . The selection criteria for this target population were developed based on the completed Phase 3 randomized controlled trial, advice from regulators, and advice from physician consultants associated with the University of California San Diego Cancer Center and Yale Medical School, recognized as among the nation’s most esteemed immuno-oncologists in head and neck cancer.

October 22

Harpoon Therapeutics announced the updated interim monotherapy data from its Phase 1/2 clinical trial evaluating HPN328 in small cell lung cancer and other neuroendocrine tumor types in a poster at the European Society of Medical Oncology Congress 2023. HPN328 targets delta-like ligand 3 and is derived from Harpoon’s proprietary Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct platform designed to recruit a patient’s own immune cells to kill tumor cells. HPN328 was generally well tolerated across all dose cohorts. Treatment-related adverse events occurred in 67 patients, and Grade greater than or equal to 3 TRAEs in 18 patients. CRS was most common and was primarily Grade 1 or 2. No dose limiting toxicities occurred at target doses, and the target maximum tolerated dose has not been reached as of the data cut off on September 12, 2023. The preliminary response data for evaluable patients treated in 1 mg priming dose cohorts showed confirmed response rate of 35% across all tumor types. In SCLC, the confirmed response rate was 32% with one confirmed complete response. In patients with other neuroendocrine tumor types, such as prostate cancer, small cell cervical, small cell bladder, and large cell lung cancer, 42% confirmed response rate was observed, including two confirmed complete responses in small cell bladder and small cell cervical tumor types. The duration of response data in the 1 mg priming dose cohorts continues to mature.

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About “Biotech Alert”

The Fly will report on a selection of biotech stocks seeing a surge in interest from retail and financial professional investors, based on data from InvestingChannel.

This Fly exclusive recap reveals the biotech stocks that are seeing a spike in searches among the 20-plus million retail and financial professional investors through InvestingChannel’s online financial news media ecosystem.

This increased attention from the investors may be in response to, or advance of, outsized moves for stocks in the biotech sector, which tend to be volatile and prone to sharp swings in share price around binary events such as clinical study results and FDA approvals.