Transgene jumps 20% on positive cancer vaccine data in early trial

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

Sept 3 — Transgene shares surged 20% in early Paris trading on Thursday, after the French biotechnology company reported positive Phase 1 trial data ‌on its vaccine candidate for head and neck cancer.

Investors ⁠have rewarded encouraging data from other personalised cancer-vaccine ⁠programmes as well: Moderna shares more than doubled ‌after its melanoma ‌vaccine data showed a reduction in the ⁠risk of recurrence or ⁠death.

• TG4050 is an individualised vaccine developed with Japan's NEC Corp, whose AI technology selects patient-specific tumour targets, for patients with high-risk head and neck cancer after surgery and ‌chemoradiotherapy.

• All 16 patients treated with TG4050 remained disease-free, versus three relapses among 16 patients in the control arm, Transgene said on Wednesday.

• Kempen analyst Chiara Montironi said the longer follow-up provided a "robust dataset" supporting TG4050's potential to prevent relapse, which would support the stock.

• The study's ‌authors noted that the ‌small ⁠number of patients and events is insufficient to establish a statistically significant benefit.

• Transgene expects Phase 2 immunological data in the second ‌half of 2026 and two-year efficacy data in ‌the first quarter ⁠of 2028.

(Reporting by Lucie Barbier in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)