Medicenna Therapeutics Corp (NASDAQ:MDNA) has appointed John H. Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA, to its Board of Directors. Fahar Merchant, PhD, President and CEO of Medicenna, is elated to welcome a world renowned clinician-scientist into their fold. He believes his expertise in leading novel clinical trials, interactions with regulators and translational immuno-oncology, will pave the way to develop MDNA11, enhance their MDNA55 program with a partnership, and build on their Superkine platform to bring more candidates into the clinic.
Dr. Sampson acknowledges the same, saying that Medicenna is doing exceptionally well now. The Phase 1/2 ABILITY Study has been recently initiated, so the company is on track to start demonstrating the potential of MDNA11 in the clinic. It has shown promising results of Phase 2b data with MDNA55 in recurrent glioblastoma and has an immensely skilled management team, all of which have contributed majorly to the company’s success.
In other news, Medicenna has announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office have issued U.S. Patent No. 11,117,943, titled “Superagonists and Antagonists of Interleukin-2”. It involves intellectual property (IP) protection for techniques to treat several types of cancers specified in the claims with interleukin-2 (IL-2) variants such as MDNA11 (the company’s selective, long-acting and novel IL-2 super-agonist). The terms of the patent extends into 2032 at least.
Market Reaction:
On Monday, MDNA stock jumped 9% at $2.80 with more than 110K shares, compared to its average volume of 131K shares. The stock has moved within a range of $2.5200 – 2.8000 after opening the trade at $2.55.
