Celldex Starts Phase 1/2 Study Of Varlilumab In Combination With Ipilimumab

(RTTNews) - Celldex Therapeutics Inc. (CLDX) announced the initiation of a Phase 1/2 safety pilot and expansion study examining the investigational combination of varlilumab and ipilimumab in patients with Stage III or IV metastatic melanoma. In the Phase 2 portion of the study, patients with tumors that express NY-ESO-1 will also receive CDX-1401, Celldex's off-the-shelf antibody-based dendritic cell vaccine that targets tumors expressing the NY-ESO-1 oncoprotein.

Varlilumab is Celldex's fully human monoclonal antibody that targets CD27, a critical co-stimulatory molecule in the immune activation cascade. Ipilimumab is a recombinant, human monoclonal antibody that blocks CTLA-4.