Medicenna Announces First Patient Dosed in ABILITY-1 Study of MDNA11 in Combination with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors

• The ABILITY-1 Study is evaluating MDNA11, a highly selective long-acting IL-2 Superkine, in combination with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab) for treatment of patients with advanced solid tumors
• MDNA11 continues to demonstrate encouraging single-agent activity from the monotherapy dose escalation portion of the ABILITY-1 Study
• Company expects to report results from both the monotherapy expansion and combination escalation and expansion arms of the Phase 2 study in H1 and H2 2024
  

TORONTO and HOUSTON, Feb. 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --  Medicenna Therapeutics Corp. (“Medicenna” or the “Company”) (TSX: MDNA, OTCQB: MDNAF), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on the development of Superkines, today announced the first patient dosed in the combination arm of the Phase 1/2 ABILITY (A Beta-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.

“Dosing the first patient in the combination arm with MDNA11 and KEYTRUDA is a significant milestone for Medicenna and are excited with the progress of our novel IL-2 superkine," said Fahar Merchant, PhD, President and CEO of Medicenna. “By combining MDNA11 with KEYTRUDA, we are building upon the promising data generated to date by MDNA11 as a single agent. Targeting the PD1/PD-L1 pathway in addition to MDNA11’s differentiated mechanism of action is expected to further stimulate and restore the patient’s immune system, which should result in improved antitumoral activity and patient outcomes. We are thrilled to enter this new phase of development of MDNA11 and further demonstrate its potential in combination with the world’s best-selling drug.”

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 blockade¹.