Q2 2021 Genocea Biosciences Inc Earnings Call

Net from Stifel.

Fantastic. Thank you.

I wanted to just ask about the general and Admin study I guess now of the dosing is underway do you have a sense for the number of patients that we might get at this first update.

And also just in terms of enrollment or are you seeing greater demand for 1 cohort.

And other.

Hey, Ben this is Jeff Thanks for the question.

And I'm going to say that we're not going to give you of concrete number on the number of patients for whom we will have the initial.

Reporting out on <unk>.

Just because of as you can imagine that's going to be dependent on just how things continue to prove.

Progress, but suffice it to say, it's not going to be sort of 1 patient we want there to be.

A robust understanding of how Gen 11 works.

As to the question about the demand for 1 of the other I think it might be helpful for us.

Tom Davis, our Chief Medical Officer, just to.

And help give everyone the perspective on how the investigators and patients are thinking about these the these cohorts 2 and maybe better and help you understand the answer Tom.

Thanks, Jeff.

Certainly a good question.

And.

The key design of the study here does allow.

For a less toxic regimen, which we think could be quite attractive to patients, particularly those who are not really good candidates for high dose limit the depletion and IL 2.

And as you might imagine we've had mixed responses definitely with the investigators and patients liking the idea of of less toxic regimen.

And exploring how well that can work as well as the others, who really want the full gusto and are prepared to take that toxicity and the hope of effectiveness.

<unk>.

Quite frankly.

Getting the both will be effective the intent here really is to have 2 different regimens that would be appropriate for different patients.

And those who may not have the physiologic capacity to handle the intense regimen would have an option of having the low dose and hopefully we'll have good efficacy there and of course, we're waiting to see the data.

Okay excellent I appreciate the context.

1 other question from me.

Just about.

Regimen, and the manufacturing process and some of the specifications that go around like releasing the product.

I guess by virtue of identifying these newer antigens are you are you able to do like potency assays for you precisely identify like activity of.

Of the relevant T cells against certain of your antigen targets and is that something that is like being implemented at this.

This early stage.

Yes, it's a really important question and then because there is I think perhaps of the perception based on some evidence and the field that there may be some challenges with release assays for these types of products, but we feel confident in our current.

And as well as our activities for the future and Jess can our chief Scientific officer can give you some additional color on that.

Yeah. Thank you Dan.

It is true that we are able to share with the drug products that we are creating that.

The T cells have activity against the specific neo antigens.

And that they were.

Educated to respond to and I think that gives us an opportunity.

And really show the strength of the product and how our selection.

The rest of the target.

Alright.

Okay.

Excellent okay.

I appreciate it thank you.

Thanks for the questions.

And your next question comes.

From the line of Chad Messer from Needham.

Great. Good morning, Thanks for taking my question and let.

Let me say, it's great to be kicking off my early season with you guys, yet again like so much right and of the curve on your financial reporting.

For the Gen 11 study.

And 1 of the efficacy readouts will be T cell persistence and.

And the expansion.

Just wondering if you could.

And maybe set the stage.

What we should look for and that data is there anything from other sort of TCR studies that Mike.

<unk>.

We benchmark that against the C or get some sense, whether the Atlas Neo antigen selection is.

And basically doing the job that we hope it's doing.

Okay.

So Chad we're honored to be kicking off your earning season and this late July timeframe.

And I'm going to ask Jeff to take over.

And answer the question about T cell persistence and.

But what we may be showing and the into some context.

Yeah. Thank you Ted I think.

You asked specifically about TCR is the way that they do tracking we would not be.

And do since they are tracking for example of single clone in the body.

But the benefit that we have and something that we will ultimately be able to report on is we already know the identity of the antigens against which the T cells should respond.

And so we can track.

And able to those specific T cells by looking at.

Ex vivo assays out of the body to look for continued responses against the antigens against which the T cells were educated.

And so that among other assays that were running should give us the very good picture of.

But with how.

B cells, and graft and how long they persist but of course, you know what we are really looking for forward to seeing is shrinkage of tumors and hopefully and filtration.

Excuse me.

Okay.

Super helpful.

Any anything.

The share about how much of that kind of data we should expect with this initial release is that the kind of thing that comes early or is that something that takes longer to analyze and report.

Jeff.

And with the the studies that we are doing.

And you've been the longitudinal.

You know we have we look early but then we also have to look for how long we detect the cells and the circulation and so I can't guide you to the number of time points that will be available at the time that we report data, but we are looking over time and each of the subjects that we treat.

Alright fair enough. Thank you.

Yes.

And your next question comes from the line of choline Husky from Baird.

Hi, good morning, Thanks, so much for taking our questions and congrats on the progress.

A clarifying question maybe.

For the endpoint that will the endpoints that we'll be getting with the initial update of T cell persistence and expansion and well you'd be looking at that and the peripheral blood and and the tumor and the does the study include a pre and post treatment biopsy or how else would you evaluate what's going on and the tumor.

Awesome.

Some of that back to Jess Thanks, Colin for the question.

Yes, we said we.

And thank you for the question, we do hope to and upsell within the peripheral blood and in the tumor we do have in the schedule of the ability to have a pre and post treatment biopsy.

Okay.

As we learned and Gen 9 Covid may impact the ability to get biopsy, depending on how the course of this pandemic goes but that is part of the plan.

Great. Thank you.

And for the the.

The planet manufacturing when and when you're expanding the T cells are you aiming for a certain mix of CD 8 and C. D force outs and I guess would you expect that mix would be fairly consistent patient to patient and or would you expect some variability.

Everything's coming up and just some of these questions and trusts over the year.

[laughter] coming and that's a really great question, we are purposely targeting both the DS 4 and see the eighth antigen and our product.

And it will vary it won't vary because of our manufacturing process. It will vary based on the antigens and the specificity that we find and each subject.

So subject 1 might have of dominance of the 8 antigens and therefore, the product will be skewed a little bit more towards the gate responses and subject to may have a more C. D for neo antigens and therefore, the product would be skewed towards the 4 more I think what's most important for us and what we have shown.

In our.

Development and engineering runs is that nearly every cell in the product is tumor specific we don't have by standards and that we retain T cells that are specific for the.

The breadth of new antigens that we intended to.

And I'm against and we believe the breadth is the very important aspect.

Aspect to the product that we're developing.

Great. Thank you and then.

Is there anything we should be looking out for for the upcoming presentation, you'll have heard the planet processor will that be kind of stuck with.

We've seen before.

I guess I should say stay tuned.

Yes, it is likely that well is that we will provide maybe a little bit more color on the <unk>.

And perhaps give some real world.

The data on how the practice.

The process has worked for us.

Great. Thanks for taking the question.

Thank you.

At this time there are no further questions I would now like to turn the call back over to chip Clark.

Thank you very much operator, and and thanks again, everyone for joining us today.

And for it to providing an update and the near future.

Yes.

This does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation you may now disconnect.

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