Vical, Inc. (VICL) surges on news of encouraging animal data

Posted on Thursday, September 22nd, 2011

Shares of biopharmaceutical company, Vical, Inc. (Nasdaq: VICL) were up as much as 21 percent from Wednesday’s closing price in mid-day trading on Thursday after teh company announced “encouraging” animal data demonstrating a synergistic improvement in efficacy using a combination of the company’s Allovectin immunotherapy with an anti-CTLA-4 antibody.

Shares of Vical touched an intraday high of $2.98 on Thursday morning, up from Wednesday’s closing price of $2.43.

According to a September 22 press release, treatment with Allovectin plus anti-CTLA-4 antibody provided a synergistic reduction of tumor growth compared with either treatment alone.

“We expected a synergistic effect with this co-treatment, and were pleased that this study confirmed it,” said Alain P. Rolland, Pharm.D., Ph.D., Vical’s Executive Vice President of Product Development in the September 22 press release.

The study was conducted in a well-accepted melanoma mouse model using a standard mouse equivalent of human anti-CTLA-4 antibodies such as ipilimumab. Cohorts included untreated mice, mice treated with Allovectin(R) alone, mice treated with anti-CTLA-4 antibody alone, and mice treated with Allovectin(R) plus anti-CTLA-4 antibody.

Vical, Inc. was founded in 1987 and is based in San Diego, California. Shares of VICL are down about 30 percent over the past three months.

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