Ultimovacs – executive interview

In this video, Soo Romanoff, healthcare managing director of Edison Group, interviews Jens Bjørheim, CMO of Ultimovacs, who discusses the company’s key asset, UV1, and upcoming milestones/catalysts for Ultimovacs.

Ultimovacs is developing novel immunotherapies against cancer. Its lead product candidate, UV1, is a peptide-based vaccine against the universal cancer antigen telomerase (hTERT), which is expressed in c 85–90% of all cancer types. UV1 therefore has broad potential in a variety of different settings and combinations. Currently the company has five ongoing Phase II trials and we continue to believe the upcoming Phase II INITIUM readouts in malignant melanoma (expected in March 2024) could represent the next most significant catalyst for Ultimovacs. The FDA granted Fast Track designation to UV1 as an add-on therapy to checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic melanoma in October 2021 and Orphan Drug designation for the treatment of stage IIB–IV melanoma in December 2021. Ultimovacs has reported compelling Phase I data in malignant melanoma in combination with pembrolizumab, with ~70% overall survival after four years. Management recently recapped an active FY23, and a detailed discussion (including INITIUM) can be found in our prior update note.