NEW YORK – Elicio Therapeutics on Thursday said it closed a previously announced reverse merger with Angion Biomedica, forming a new company named Elicio Therapeutics, which will trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol ELTX.
The merger will support advancement of Boston-based Elicio's cancer vaccine ELI-002 in two clinical trials. ELI-002 was developed on Elicio's amphiphile technology platform, which combines an albumin-binding lipid tail, a linker, and a therapeutic payload. The construct is delivered to the lymph nodes by its association with albumin. ELI-002 targets KRAS-driven cancers via a payload comprising an immune-stimulatory oligonucleotide (Amph-CpG-7909) and two mutant KRAS peptide antigens (Amph-G12D and AmphG12R).
In the Phase I AMPLIFY-201 trial, 18 subjects with KRAS- or NRAS-mutated pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma or other solid tumors will receive increasing doses of ELI-002 to determine safety and a recommended Phase II dose. As a secondary endpoint, researchers will look at biomarker reduction and clearance rates.
In the Phase I/II AMPLIFY-7P trial, Elicio investigators are studying a different formulation, ELI-002 7P, which contains seven Amph-modified KRAS and NRAS peptides in patients with KRAS- and NRAS-mutated solid tumors, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, colorectal cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. In Phase I of the trial, researchers will assess the safety of ELI-002 7P, and in Phase II they will compare relapse-free survival of patients treated with ELI-002 7P with a control group who are not treated. As a secondary endpoint, Elicio will observe objective response rates of patients who cross over from the control arm to the ELI-002 7P arm upon disease progression.
Elicio also has a clinical trial in the works for ELI-002 with Regeneron's anti-PD-1 antibody Libtayo (cemiplimab) in patients with KRAS-mutated cancers, following a supply agreement signed in May 2022 with Regeneron. The company expects that trial to begin in 2023.
Angion's lead program is ANG-3070, a clinical-stage oral tyrosine kinase receptor inhibitor it is developing for chronic fibrotic diseases of the kidney and lung. It also has preclinical programs targeting ROCK2 and CYP11B2 in fibrosis and aldosterone-related diseases, respectively.
Approximately 9.7 million shares of the combined company's common stock will be outstanding following closing of the merger and a reverse stock split. Prior Elicio shareholders will own about 65.2 percent of the company, and prior Angion shareholders will own 34.8 percent.