“We are pleased with the FDA's decision to grant Fast Track Designation for CAN-2409 in pancreatic cancer,” said Paul Peter Tak, MD, PhD, FMedSci, President and CEO of Candel. “This milestone follows our first interim data report from the randomized phase 2 clinical trial in patients with borderline resectable PDAC that showed prolonged and sustained survival after experimental treatment with CAN-2409, especially when compared to real-world data on patients receiving radiotherapy treatment. Candel remains on track to release updated overall survival data from the interim analysis of this clinical trial in the second quarter of 2024. We are grateful to the patients, caregivers, investigators and clinical sites that have taken part in this clinical trial.”

In November 2023, the Company presented encouraging overall survival and immunological biomarker data based on an interim analysis of the randomized, phase 2 clinical trial of CAN-2409 plus prodrug together with standard of care (SoC) neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by resection for borderline resectable non-metastatic PDAC at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting. An estimated survival rate of 71.4% at both 24 and 36 months in patients who received 2 or 3 injections of the CAN-2409 plus prodrug regimen, together with SoC chemoradiation prior to surgery was observed, versus only 16.7% estimated survival at both 24 and 36 months in patients treated with SoC chemoradiation prior to surgery alone. In parallel, the immunological changes observed in the resected pancreatic tissue after CAN-2409 administration suggested that this investigational treatment can activate an effective immunologic antitumoral response in this otherwise “cold” tumor.