Welcome to Biotech Spotlight, where we talk about companies creating groundbreaking technologies and products. Today, we’re discussing Imunon, a company that might have found a new way to treat ovarian cancer, a disease that hasn’t seen much progress in treatment options in a long time. We’re joined by Stacy Lindborg, the CEO and president of Imunon. Imunon’s goal is to teach our body’s immune system to fight cancer and other diseases using special DNA treatments. Their main technology, called TheraPlas, is designed to deliver these treatments directly to the cancer. Imunon is focusing on treating aggressive cancers, starting with ovarian cancer. Their lead treatment, IMNN-001, is in the final stages of testing for newly diagnosed ovarian cancer patients. It works by giving the body the instructions to produce a substance called IL-12, which helps the immune system fight cancer. Imunon is also working on a vaccine for COVID-19, called IMNN-101, using a similar technology. The company used to be called Celsion Corporation but changed its name in 2022 to better reflect their focus on immunotherapy. Why is this important? While there’s been progress in treating ovarian cancer that has come back or spread, there hasn’t been much change in the initial treatment, which is usually chemotherapy. ‘We’ve seen four trials in the frontline ovarian cancer space within the past year. Those trials all failed to show overall survival improvements,’ Lindborg said. This could change with IMNN-001. The company hopes it will be the first new treatment in almost 30 years that can improve survival rates for ovarian cancer patients. ‘We have the benefit of bringing forward a trial that has shown a 13-month improvement in overall survival,’ Lindborg said. ‘I don’t know of any other trial that has an innovative, novel, core treatment that is enrolling in this space right now.’ The treatment is different not just in how it works, but also in how it’s delivered. While IL-12 is a well-known target for cancer treatment, it can be hard on the body. Instead of giving IL-12 directly, IMNN-001 gives the body the instructions to produce it. It also delivers these instructions directly to the tumor, bypassing the bloodstream. ‘You’re trying to teach the body to produce these proteins and cytokines that our body naturally produces and then basically target them to an area where there is a tumor,’ Lindborg said. The treatment has also shown promising results in changing the environment around the tumor, making it easier for the immune system to attack the cancer. What’s next? Imunon is running several clinical trials for IMNN-001 in ovarian cancer, including a final-stage trial. They’re also looking into using this technology to treat other types of cancer, like stomach, pancreatic, bladder, liver, colon, and brain cancers. ‘We can think about gastric, pancreatic, bladder, liver, colon and glioblastoma. We’ve done preclinical studies in many of these. There are areas in which we can target solid tumors that are in a contained environment,’ Lindborg said. This technology allows us to use powerful substances that we wouldn’t want circulating in the blood, giving us the ability to make progress in treating these difficult cancers.