Hummingbird Bioscience, an innovative clinical-stage biotech company focused on developing precision therapies against hard-to-drug targets, today announced that its Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder, Dr Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, will be speaking at the 2021 virtual symposium "VISTA: A New Immune Checkpoint in Cancer, Autoimmunity and Beyond", taking place on June 18, 2021.

Hosted by Randolph Noelle, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth; and Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, the event gathers leading immunology experts across industry and academia to discuss the emerging checkpoint molecule, VISTA, including its function, the role it plays in several disease areas and current development programs.

Hummingbird will be speaking in the following sessions: 

Session Title:   VISTA regulation of the tumor microenvironment in human cancer
Date/Time:      June 18, 2021 from 9:50 AM to 10:35 AM ET

Session Title:   VISTA advances into clinical development
Date/Time:      June 18, 2021 from 12:20 PM to 1:05 PM ET            

"The presence of VISTA is increasingly implicated as a resistance mechanism to other immune checkpoint therapies, including anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 antibodies. This conference is an excellent opportunity to share insights and knowledge, including Hummingbird's experience with our highly differentiated clinical stage anti-VISTA antibody, HMBD-002," said Dr Boyd-Kirkup.

Hummingbird's rationally targeted anti-VISTA neutralizing antibody, HMBD-002, is the only IgG4 isotype anti-VISTA neutralizing antibody that is currently in development for the treatment of cancers with VISTA-mediated immune suppression, including triple negative breast cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Pre-clinical studies have shown that HMBD-002 as a monotherapy inhibits tumor growth and significantly prolongs survival, with no observed toxicity. It has also shown synergy when used in combination with anti-PD-1 therapy. The Phase 1 clinical trial for HMBD-002 is anticipated to commence later this year. 

About HMBD-002

HMBD-002 is a unique anti-VISTA neutralizing antibody, and the only IgG4 isotype anti-VISTA antibody currently in development. It was engineered to bind to VISTA at a specific site that is predicted to be essential for ligand-binding and function, thus inhibiting VISTA and neutralizing its immunosuppressive activity without depleting VISTA expressing cells that play many important roles in the immune system.

Pre-clinical studies have shown that HMBD-002 as a monotherapy inhibits tumor growth and significantly prolongs survival, with no observed toxicity. It has also shown synergy when used in combination with anti-PD-1 therapy.

HMBD-002 is being developed for multiple cancers that have strong evidence of VISTA mediated suppression both as a monotherapy and in combination with PD-1 inhibitor.

Hummingbird's first-in-class anti-VISTA therapeutic antibody is advancing to clinical trials with support from a US$13.1 million product development grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

About Hummingbird Bioscience

Hummingbird Bioscience is an innovative clinical-stage biotech company focused on developing precision therapies against hard-to-drug targets to improve treatment outcomes. We harness the latest advances in systems biology and data science to better understand and solve the underlying causes of disease and guide development of our therapeutics.

Enabled by our proprietary Rational Antibody Discovery platform, we discover antibodies against optimal yet elusive epitopes on important targets that have not been successfully drugged, unlocking novel mechanisms of action. We are advancing a rich pipeline of first- and best-in-class precision therapies in oncology and autoimmunity, in collaboration with global partners in academia and industry.

Our highly experienced teams in the US and Singapore span antibody discovery, pharmacology, production and clinical development. Together we aim to accelerate the journey of new drugs from concept to clinical care.