• EVX-05 is an off-the-shelf therapeutic glioblastoma (brain cancer) vaccine designed based on patient tumor samples. It targets novel conserved antigens identified using Evaxion’s AI-Immunology™ platform
• Glioblastoma is characterized by high mortality rates and significant unmet medical needs. EVX-05 is being developed as a novel therapeutic approach to treat glioblastoma
• Evaxion is collaborating with a world-leading academic medical research institution, which is expected to conduct initial clinical testing of EVX-05
• Evaxion maintains its cash runway into second half of 2027 as its R&D pipeline is refocused with the addition of EVX-05 while the EVX-03 program is discontinued

 Evaxion A/S (NASDAQ: EVAX) (“Evaxion”), a clinical-stage TechBio company developing novel vaccines with its pioneering AI-Immunology™ platform, expands it pipeline of cancer vaccine programs with EVX-05 against the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma.

We are collaborating with experts from Duke University School of Medicine to develop EVX-05. This program targets endogenous retrovirus (ERV)-derived antigens shared between glioblastoma patients, which AI-Immunology™ has unique capabilities in identifying. These ERV-antigens constitute a novel source of highly attractive targets for off-the-shelf cancer vaccines.

With its new therapeutic concept, EVX-05 is being developed as a novel therapeutic approach for glioblastoma. Current therapies are often inadequate, meaning glioblastoma remains one of the most aggressive and deadly cancers.

“We are delighted to transform our discoveries in glioblastoma into a promising new vaccine program with EVX-05, which could hold a significant therapeutic potential in area of massive unmet medical need. We have an outstanding collaboration with Duke University and now see the huge benefits of combining their extensive disease understanding and clinical expertise with the unique target discovery capabilities of AI-Immunology™,” says Birgitte Rønø, CSO and COO of Evaxion.

"Patients with glioblastoma continue to face limited treatment options and poor outcomes,” said Mustafa Khasraw, M.D., professor at Duke University School of Medicine. “The potential of ERVs as therapeutic targets has long been acknowledged, if we can unlock this potential, it would be a significant advancement towards improving care.”

World-leading expertise
Evaxion is currently undertaking optimization of a lead vaccine candidate for the EVX-05 program as part of advancing it towards initial clinical testing. This is expected to be carried out by Professor Khasraw and his team, allowing for world-leading clinical expertise and knowledge of patient needs to help guide clinical development. The collaboration also potentially allows a cost-efficient way for Evaxion to study EVX-05 in a clinical phase 1 trial.

EVX-05 builds on the same ground-breaking ERV-targeting concept as EVX-04, Evaxion’s vaccine candidate against acute myeloid leukemia. This confirms the broad applicability of the concept across cancers where immunotherapies remain inadequate and conserved immunogenic antigens can be identified.

Both programs draw on learnings from the EVX-03 program, which has now been discontinued and removed from our R&D pipeline as a matter of portfolio management. The costs related to EVX-05 are captured within Evaxion’s existing budgets and hence does not impact on our cash runway, which continues to stretch into second half of 2027.