NEUVOGEN Announces Next Generation Cancer Vaccine Strategy to Transform how Solid Tumors are Treated

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NEUVOGEN, an immunoncology company, announces its novel cancer vaccine strategy to transform how solid tumors are treated.  NEUVOGEN's strategy employs a systems approach to discover and develop the next generation of whole cell cancer vaccine immunotherapies. Early data shows that this strategy has produced candidates with the potential to meaningfully improve and extend the lives of patients suffering from a broad spectrum of solid tumors.  NEUVOGEN's technology is designed to maximize immune priming against the broadest array of tumor targets ever combined into a single platform. The team at NEUVOGEN has overcome challenges that have plagued past whole cell vaccines and has completed the pre-clinical validation of its technology platform.

"We believe NEUVOGEN's cancer vaccines will deliver the broadest immune-priming ever achieved to transform the way solid tumors are treated.  Our novel immunotherapy platform holds the promise of creating better and safer treatment options for patients." said Todd Binder, Chief Executive Officer of NEUVOGEN. "Our team of scientists and clinicians have extensive experience in therapeutic cancer vaccines, and they are now poised to advance our pipeline of compelling candidates into clinical development.  We are truly excited to enter this next phase to further demonstrate the promise of our novel whole cell cancer vaccine strategy and ultimately bring game changing products to the immunotherapy market".   

ADVANCING IMMUNONCOLOGY THERAPY BY PRIMING THE BROADEST ARRAY OF CANCER TARGETS WITH A ROBUST ADJUVANT

Previous immune priming approaches have typically focused on one or a handful of important targets, but some cancer cells within a tumor may not express these targets leading to immune escape by the tumor. NEUVOGEN's technology directly addresses three key limitations that have plagued past efforts in cancer vaccine development:  inadequate tumor target breadth; inadequate immune priming; lack of a systematic approach to overcome immune suppressive mechanisms within the tumor microenvironment. 

NEUVOGEN is advancing discovery and development programs that will transform how solid tumors are treated by:

• taking full advantage of the breadth afforded by whole cell tumor vaccines to incorporate multiple tumor-targeting strategies in a single platform
• simultaneously employing a proprietary combination of genetic modifications to each of the six whole cell tumor lines in each of its vaccines to create a robust immune priming adjuvant effect in order to overcome peripheral tolerance to self-antigens
• effectively priming against its broad array of targets in patient populations where cancer vaccine mono-therapy has demonstrated clinical efficacy signals in large studies

"NEUVOGEN has the potential to disrupt the current immunoncology treatment paradigm by turning our technologies into a pipeline of truly novel cancer immunotherapies for various solid tumors." said Kendall M. Mohler, PhD, former CSO of Juno Therapeutics, and now scientific advisor and member of the Board of Directors at NEUVOGEN. "The technology platform is accelerating the investigation of many candidates across a broad spectrum of solid tumors, and the early data is very compelling." 

APPLYING THE WHOLE CELL VACCINE TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM 
NEUVOGEN's whole cell vaccine immunotherapy platform is designed to simultaneously prime the broadest array of targets, impacting multiple biologic pathways with the goal of directing an immune response against overlapping targets on every cell within a tumor.  Based upon decades of whole cell vaccine research, NEUVOGEN has generated multiple solid tumor candidates with the potential to create a potent and durable tumor response.  NEUVOGEN's novel whole cell vaccine platform provides powerful immune priming and has certain advantages over other directed cancer-cell-killing modalities including CAR-Ts, Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs), DNA cancer vaccines, and mRNA cancer vaccines.    

"The NEUVOGEN whole cell platform has the ability to transform the clinical landscape of how we treat patients with solid tumors." said Mark Bagarazzi, Chief Medical Officer at NEUVOGEN. "Our scientists have been able to employ multiple direct killing mechanisms of cancer therapeutics and we are confident that NEUVOGEN's systems approach will maximize immune priming while minimizing immune escape of solid tumors. NEUVOGEN will generate potentially safer and more effective therapies with the goal of targeting all of the cells within the tumor, thereby driving sustained remissions and eliminating cancer recurrences."

BUILDING AN ACCOMPLISHED WORLD CLASS TEAM
NEUVOGEN is led by a team of highly accomplished biotech leaders with deep experience in immunoncology and cancer vaccine development.  The team has collectively advanced many therapies in the area of immunoncology ? experience it will use to develop its pipeline of novel therapeutic vaccines. 

• Todd Binder, MBA, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member
• Mark Bagarazzi, MD, Chief Medical Officer
• Sarah Korman, PhD, JD, General Counsel
• Cyrus Arman, PhD, MBA, Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategy
• Bernadette Ferraro, PhD, MPH, Head of Immunoncology
• Jian Yan, PhD, Head of Design and Innovation

"NEUVOGEN has emerged as a leader to watch in the immunoncology space" said Gordon Binder, former CEO of Amgen, strategic advisor and Chairman of the Board to NEUVOGEN.  "Given my experience in oncology treatments, NEUVOGEN's management team has made impressive progress. The Board and I look forward to working with this team to grow the company and turn the compelling science into novel cancer vaccines that treat and meaningfully extend the lives of patients suffering from cancer." 

The company's Board of Directors has decades of biotech management experience. In addition to Gordon Binder, the Board includes:

• Todd Binder, Chief Executive Officer
• Denny Lanfear, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Coherus BioSciences
• Kendall M. Mohler, PhD, Chief Development Officer, Accelerator Life Science Partners, former SVP Research, Juno Therapeutics

About NEUVOGEN
NEUVOGEN, Inc. is an immunoncology company focused on whole cell cancer vaccine therapies. NEUVOGEN's immunotherapies have the potential to deliver the broadest ever combination of tumor antigens to prime immune response. Based in San Diego, California, NEUVOGEN's goal is to bring to market a pipeline of therapeutic cancer vaccines that activate the body's immune system to eradicate solid tumors and meaningfully extend the lives of patients while limiting side effects generally associated with traditional cancer treatments. To learn more, visit www.neuvogen.com

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and NEUVOGEN, Inc. (the "Company") intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbor created thereby. These forward-looking statements might include statements regarding the Company's future plans, targets, estimates, assumptions, financial position, business strategy and other plans and objectives for future operations, and assumptions and predictions about research and development efforts, including, but not limited to, preclinical and clinical research design, execution, timing, costs, results, future product demand, supply, manufacturing, marketing, and pricing factors. In some cases, forward-looking statements may be identified by words including "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "expects," "plans," "contemplates," "targets," "continues," "budgets," "may," and similar expressions and such statements may include, but are not limited to, statements regarding (i) future research plans, expenditures and results, (ii) potential collaborative arrangements, (iii) the potential utility of the Company's proposed products, (iv) reorganization plans, and (v) the need for, and availability of, additional financing. The forward-looking statements included herein are based on current expectations and beliefs that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions regarding the Company's business and technology, which involve judgments with respect to, among other things, future scientific, economic, regulatory and competitive conditions, collaborations with third parties, effects of pandemics or other widespread health problems such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and future business decisions, all of which are difficult or impossible to predict accurately and many of which are beyond the Company's control. Although the Company believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking information included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by the Company or any other person that the Company's objectives or plans will be achieved. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, regulatory policies or changes thereto, available cash, research and development results, competition from other similar businesses, interest of third parties in collaborations with the Company, effects of pandemics or other widespread health problems such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and market and general economic factors. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. The Company does not undertake and specifically declines any obligation to update any forward-obligation to update any forward-looking statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any statements to reflect new information or future events or developments.

SOURCE NEUVOGEN Inc.