FDA Approves Initiation of Humanigen’s Phase III Study of Lenzilumab in COVID-19 Patients

Company to Begin Enrolling Patients as Soon as Possible at Several Leading Centers

• Phase III study enrollment to focus on adult, hospitalized patients with COVID-19 pneumonia and at high risk of progression to respiratory failure
• US multi-center, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded Phase III study which, if successful, may lead to a lenzilumab product approval for COVID-19

BURLINGAME, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 15, 2020 / Humanigen, Inc., (OTCQB:HGEN) (“Humanigen”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on preventing and treating cytokine storm with lenzilumab, the company’s proprietary Humaneered^® anti-human GM-CSF monoclonal antibody, announced that FDA has given permission to commence a Phase III study of lenzilumab in patients with COVID-19.

Humanigen plans to enroll patients in a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded clinical trial with lenzilumab for the prevention of respiratory failure and/or death in hospitalized patients with pneumonia associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in COVID-19 patients.

“We are working with some of the top centers and clinicians in the US, alongside our contract research organization partner, CTI, to bring lenzilumab rapidly through this clinical study which, if successful, may reduce serious and potentially fatal outcomes in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and at high risk of progression,” said Dr. Cameron Durrant, chief executive officer of Humanigen.

“We are pleased with the unprecedented speed with which this program has moved from concept to active trial,” remarked Tim Schroeder, founder and CEO of CTI. “It is a demonstration of both the commitment of the CTI and Humanigen teams and an exceptional level of collaboration between us and our counterparts at the FDA. Everyone is working extraordinarily hard to help bring treatments to patients, and we are proud to be a part of that effort.”

Dr. Durrant continued, “Lenzilumab has demonstrated an excellent safety and tolerability profile in other disease settings, including severe asthma. As the only company that has been working on prevention of cytokine storm through GM-CSF neutralization for nearly three years, we have published extensively in this field and filed extensive IP. We plan to bring this experience to the COVID-19 setting and recruit patients into this Phase III study as quickly as possible.”

More details on the company’s programs in COVID-19 can be found on the company’s website at www.humanigen.com under the COVID-19 tab.

About COVID-19

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 has become a global pandemic, with almost 2 million confirmed cases and over 125,000 deaths reported to date. Patients with severe cases of COVID-19 experience severe viral pneumonia that can progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), respiratory failure and death.

In severe patients with COVID-19, published research suggests GM-CSF as the key link between pathogenic Th1 cells and inflammatory monocytes, which secrete additional GM-CSF¹.

Lenzilumab is a late clinical-stage, monoclonal antibody targeting GM-CSF, a pro-inflammatory cytokine up-regulated in the serum of COVID-19 patients². The percentages of certain GM-CSF-expressing cells are significantly higher in the blood of ICU-admitted COVID-19 patients compared with healthy controls and more pronounced in ICU-admitted COVID-19 patients versus non-ICU patients².

1. Zhou Y, Fu B, Zheng X, et al. Aberrant pathogenic GM-CSF+ T cells and inflammatory CD14+CD16+ monocytes in severe pulmonary syndrome patients of a new coronavirus. Pre-Print. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.12.945576.

2. Huang C, Wang Y, Li X, et al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet. 2020;395(10223):497-506. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30183-5.

About Humanigen, Inc.

Humanigen, Inc. is developing its portfolio of clinical and pre-clinical therapies for the treatment of cancers and infectious diseases via its novel, cutting-edge GM-CSF neutralization and gene-knockout platforms. We believe that our GM-CSF neutralization and gene-editing platform technologies have the potential to reduce the inflammatory cascade associated with coronavirus infection as well as the serious and potentially life-threatening CAR-T therapy-related side effects while preserving and potentially improving the efficacy of the CAR-T therapy itself, thereby breaking the efficacy/toxicity linkage. The company’s immediate focus is to prevent or minimize the cytokine storm that precedes severe lung dysfunction and ARDS in serious cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection and also in combining FDA-approved and development stage CAR-T therapies with lenzilumab, the company’s proprietary Humaneered^® anti-human-GM-CSF immunotherapy, which is its lead product candidate. A clinical collaboration with Kite, a Gilead Company, is underway to evaluate the sequential use of lenzilumab with Yescarta^®, axicabtagene ciloleucel, in a multicenter clinical trial in adults with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, which is currently enrolling. The company is also focused on creating next-generation combinatory gene-edited CAR-T therapies using strategies to improve efficacy while employing GM-CSF gene knockout technologies to control toxicity. In addition, the company is developing its own portfolio of proprietary first-in-class EphA3-CAR-T for various solid cancers and EMR1-CAR-T for various eosinophilic disorders. The company is also exploring the effectiveness of its GM-CSF neutralization technologies (either through the use of lenzilumab as a neutralizing antibody or through GM-CSF gene knockout) in combination with other CAR-T, bispecific or natural killer (NK) T cell engaging immunotherapy treatments to break the efficacy/toxicity linkage, including to prevent and/or treat graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The company has established several partnerships with leading institutions to advance its innovative cell and gene therapy pipeline. For more information, visit www.humanigen.com

About CTI

CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services is a global, privately held, full-service contract research organization (CRO), delivering a complete spectrum of clinical trial and consulting services throughout the lifecycle of development, from concept to commercialization. CTI’s focused therapeutic approach provides pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device firms with clinical and disease area expertise in rare diseases, regenerative medicine/gene therapy, immunology, transplantation, nephrology, hematology/oncology, neurology, infectious diseases, hepatology, cardiopulmonary, and pediatric populations. CTI also offers a fully integrated multi-specialty clinical research site that conducts phase I-IV trials. CTI has a passion for helping life-changing therapies succeed in chronically and critically ill patient populations. With clinical trial experience across 6 continents, CTI partners with research sites, patients, and sponsors to fulfill unmet medical needs. CTI is headquartered in the Greater Cincinnati, OH area, with operations across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. For more information visit www.ctifacts.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements reflect management’s current knowledge, assumptions, judgment and expectations regarding future performance or events. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such statements are reasonable, they give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and you should be aware that actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Words such as “will,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “potential,” “possible,” “goals,” “accelerate,” “continue,” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our expectations for the Phase III study and the future development of lenzilumab to minimize or reduce the severity of lung dysfunction associated with severe COVID-19 infections or to be approved by FDA for such use or to help CAR-T reach its full potential or to deliver benefit in preventing GvHD. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the risks inherent in Black Horse Capital and its affiliates owning more than 50% of our outstanding common stock, including their ability to control the company; our lack of profitability and need for additional capital to conduct the Phase III study and operate our business as a going concern; our dependence on partners to further the development of our product candidates; the uncertainties inherent in the development and launch of any new pharmaceutical product; the outcome of pending or future litigation; and the various risks and uncertainties described in the “Risk Factors” sections and elsewhere in the Company’s periodic and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

CONTACT:

Investors and media:
ir@humanigen.com

SOURCE: Humanigen, Inc. 

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