Evaxion scraps solid tumor vaccine to focus on Duke-partnered brain cancer candidate

Biotech Evaxion scraps solid tumor vaccine to focus on Duke-partnered brain cancer candidate By James Waldron Aug 17, 2026 9:18am Evaxion Biotech Lung cancer vaccine glioblastoma Oncology Evaxion has scrapped a next-gen solid tumor vaccine in order to channel resources to a candidate specifically targeting brain cancer. The Danish biotech had at one point been planning to take EVX-03—a DNA vaccine optimized with an antigen-presenting cell-targeting unit—into the clinic to prove its worth in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Back in 2022, Evaxion execs were keen to tout the candidate’s potential to “make a difference in multiple indications,” citing “very encouraging” data on “all parameters from anti-tumor effect to immunogenicity.” But EVX-03 has since fallen out of favor at the company, with the promised clinical trial never coming to pass and references to the asset disappearing from the company’s releases over the following years.

In its second-quarter earnings release this morning, Evaxion confirmed that it has discontinued EVX-03 “as a matter of portfolio management.” Learnings from the EVX-03 program had been applied to the biotech’s two highest-priority candidates, dubbed EVX-05 and EVX-04. Evaxion has hailed EVX-05 as an off-the-shelf therapeutic vaccine for glioblastoma, which has been designed based on tumor samples from patients. The company used its AI-Immunology platform to ensure that EVX-05 targets specific endogenous retrovirus (ERV)-derived antigens.

“Current therapies are often inadequate, meaning glioblastoma remains one of the most aggressive and deadly cancers,” Evaxion claimed in the Aug. 17 release. “These ERV-antigens constitute a novel source of highly attractive targets for off-the-shelf cancer vaccines.” The EVX-05 program is a collaboration with Duke University School of Medicine.

The current plan is for Evaxion to oversee optimization of a lead vaccine candidate for the program, with Duke University’s professor Mustafa Khasraw, M.D., taking charge of the resulting vaccine’s move into a phase 1 trial. “Patients with glioblastoma continue to face limited treatment options and poor outcomes,” Khasraw said in the release. “The potential of ERVs as therapeutic targets has long been acknowledged.

If we can unlock this potential, it would be a significant advancement towards improving care.” Evaxion has already harnessed the same ERV-targeting approach for EVX-04, an acute myeloid leukemia that is also in preclinical development. The company has one candidate in the clinic in the form of EVX-01, a peptide vaccine which in 2025 was tied to a 75% objective response rate in patients with advanced melanoma after two years. Evaxion is planning to read out three-year data from the same phase 2 trial in October.

Scrapping work on EVX-03 means the Copenhagen-based biotech’s cash runway should last into the second half of 2027. Evaxion Biotech Lung cancer vaccine glioblastoma Oncology Biotech