Prima cleared to extend cancer trial to Korea

Prima BioMed (ASX:PRR) has secured regulatory approval to extend its CANVAS cancer study to several clinical trial sites in South Korea.

The company now expects to activate Korean sites and start treatment for the first group of patients in the next few weeks.

“We are excited to have obtained Korean approval for CANVAS as the first Asian country to approve a clinical trial of CVac,” Prima CEO Matthew Lehman said.

CANVAS is a phase II/III study into using Prima’s CVac cancer vaccine candidate for the maintenance treatment of late-stage epithelial ovarian cancer patients who achieve remission after surgery and standard first line chemotherapy.

The trial is designed to involve 1000 patients across more than 100 sites in Australia, the USA, Europe and Asia.

Prima recruited the first patient for the study around 18 months ago, commenced recruitment in Europe in March and doubled the number of active sites in July.

The company separately announced that Lehman will present at the 15th Annual Rodman & Renshaw Global Investment Conference on Monday 9 September 2013 in New York City.

Lehman will provide an overview of the company for the investor audience and attend one-on-one meetings with interested participants.

The presentation will commence at 11.15 am Eastern US time (1.15 am AEST) and will be webcast and archived here.

Prima BioMed (ASX:PRR) shares grew 4.88% in Wednesday’s trading to $0.086.