Medicenna Therapeutics Corp. announced the first patient dosed in the combination arm of the Phase 1/2 ABILITY (ABeta-only IL-2 ImmunoTherapY) study evaluating MDNA11, a long-acting, ?beta-enhanced not-alpha? interleukin-2 (IL-2) super-agonist, with KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab).

The combination portion of the study is designed to evaluate the potential for a synergistic effect of MDNA11 with KEYTRUDA® in patients with advanced solid tumors. Solid tumors represent 90% of all cancers and although CPI therapies have shown promising advances in some types of immunosensitive cancers, more than 70% of patients do not respond to or become resistant to such therapies. MDNA11, with its uniquely differentiating ?beta-enhanced not-alpha?

features, continues to be a potential best-in-class next-generation IL-2 super-agonist for treatment of advanced solid tumors. Pre-clinical data published in JITC in 2022 demonstrated that mice receiving both, MDNA11 and checkpoint inhibitors achieved complete and sustained tumor control even after multiple rechallenges, demonstrating the capacity for MDNA11 to sensitize solid tumors to checkpoint blockade. The ABILITY-1 Study is actively recruiting patients with different types of recurrent or metastatic solid tumors at multiple sites in the USA, Canada, Australia, and South Korea and is expected to initiate patient enrolment in Europe.

Preliminary results from both the monotherapy expansion and combination escalation and expansion arms of ABILITY-1 the study will be available in H1 and H2 2024.