Anaveon’s lead asset, ANV419, is a selective IL-2 receptor agonist, a type of protein drug which can potentially generate therapeutic cancer responses by expanding certain immune cells (T-cell and Natural Killer cells) with known anti-cancer activitiy.

ANV419 has been designed to seek to overcome known challenges with selectivity, toxicity and durability of human IL-2, an approved drug for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and renal cancer. This type of product, if approved, could be used both as a monotherapy and in combination with other treatments (eg checkpoint antibodies) in the treatment of solid and liquid tumors.

Anaveon has released encouraging pre-clinical data which suggests that ANV419 could have a class-leading efficacy/safety profile, with clinical data from the company’s Phase I/II open label study of ANV419 expected in early 2022.