Immutep Ltd. (NASDAQ: IMMP) shares saw a nice gain in Wednesday’s session after the company released new data from its early-stage clinical trial in unresectable or metastatic melanoma patients. Specifically, the data are from the firm’s TACTI-mel Phase 1 trial evaluating the combination of eftilagimod alpha (efti, or IMP321) in combination with pembrolizumab (keytruda).

Overall the study found long-lasting and durable responses in a subset of patients. Also, there were two complete responses related to the combination therapy out of the 18 patients.

Perhaps one of the biggest highlights from the study was the overall response rate of 61% (11 of 18 patients) when tumor size is measured starting from cycle 1 day 1 of pembrolizumab monotherapy and following combination therapy.

Marc Voigt, CEO of Immutep, commented:

The new data is very encouraging, further supporting our hypothesis that the combination of efti and pembrolizumab may be a hopeful solution for cancer patients. As advancements in PD-1 have enabled breakthroughs in immunotherapy, research is showing that LAG-3 has the potential to take immunotherapy to the next level, enabling more effective cancer treatments.  We look forward to starting our new efti-pembrolizumab combination program in three different cancer indications as well as the results from the additional TACTI-mel patient cohort in the second half of this year.

Shares of Immutep were last seen up about 9% at $2.67, with a consensus analyst price target of $5.08 and a 52-week trading range of $1.25 to $2.85.

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