NEEDHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLDX) today announced preliminary results from the Company’s randomized Phase 2b EMERGE study of CDX-011 (glembatumumab vedotin) antibody drug conjugate in patients with glycoprotein NMB (GPNMB) expressing, advanced, heavily pretreated breast cancer. Preliminary results suggest that CDX-011 induces impressive response rates compared to current, available therapies in patients with advanced, refractory breast cancers with high GPNMB expression (expression in =25% of tumor cells). In this high expressing patient population, treatment with CDX-011 resulted in a 32% overall response rate (ORR; includes confirmed and unconfirmed responses), whereas treatment with Investigator’s Choice (IC) single-agent chemotherapy resulted in a 13% ORR. CDX-011 also demonstrated strong response rates in patients with triple negative breast cancer across all levels of GPNMB expression (CDX-011 ORR of 21%; IC ORR of 0%), where treatment options are extremely limited. In addition, in patients with triple negative breast cancer who also highly express GPNMB, greater activity was observed (CDX-011 ORR of 36%; IC ORR of 0%). The ORR across all levels of GPNMB expression was 19% for the CDX-011 arm and 14% for the IC arm, and a direct, positive correlation was observed between increasing levels of GPNMB expression and increased CDX-011 response rates. Based on these data, the Company believes CDX-011 has significant promise as a targeted therapy for patients with breast cancer and high expression of GPNMB, and especially for those with triple negative disease.