🧾 What This Document Is

This is a press release (filed as an Exhibit to an 8-K) from MAIA Biotechnology. The company is sharing exciting early results from a clinical trial of its cancer drug. They presented this data at a major medical conference in Copenhagen on March 27, 2026. 👉 Why it matters: Companies use these announcements to update investors and the public on their most important progress. Positive clinical data can significantly impact a biotech's value.

🏢 What The Company Does

In simple terms, MAIA Biotechnology is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. This means they are in the business of developing new drugs but haven't sold any yet. They are focused on creating targeted immunotherapies for cancer – treatments designed to help the patient's own immune system find and fight cancer cells.

🚀 The Clinical Trial Results (The Big News)

MAIA reported very promising survival data from its ongoing Phase 2 THIO-101 trial for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The key headline: Eight patients lived for more than two years after starting treatment with their drug, ateganosine, followed by another immunotherapy drug called cemiplimab (Libtayo®).

Here’s why those numbers are striking:

• One patient in third-line therapy (meaning they had already tried two other treatments) survived 33 months. The expected survival for such patients is only about 5.8 months.
• Four patients in second-line therapy survived over 30 months. The standard treatment in this setting offers about 10.5 months of survival.
• All eight patients had previously failed treatment with a standard immunotherapy drug (a checkpoint inhibitor).
• Five of the eight patients are still alive, with their survival ongoing.

👉 The takeaway: These patients, who had exhausted standard options, lived significantly longer than typically expected.

🧪 The Drug & How It Works

The investigational drug is called ateganosine (THIO). It’s a first-in-class telomere-targeting agent.

• Analogy: Think of telomeres as the plastic tips on shoelaces that protect the ends from fraying. Cancer cells use an enzyme called telomerase to keep these "tips" long so they can keep dividing.
• Ateganosine damages these telomeres in cancer cells, which kills them. Crucially, the dying cancer cells release signals that ramp up the body's immune response against the tumor.
• The idea is to use ateganosine first to "prime" the immune system, then follow it with a PD-1 inhibitor (like cemiplimab) to sustain a powerful attack. This is the sequential treatment strategy being tested.

🔮 What's Next for the Trial

The THIO-101 trial is ongoing. Part C, an expansion phase, is currently enrolling up to 48 more participants in Asia and Europe. The company is also running a pivotal Phase 3 trial based on this same concept. The CEO, Vlad Vitoc, stated these long survival results "bode well" for those later-stage trials.

⚖️ Big Picture: Strengths & Risks

👍 Strengths / Potential:

• The survival data, especially in patients who failed other immunotherapies, is very encouraging and suggests a strong, durable effect.
• Ateganosine has a novel mechanism of action (telomere targeting), which could be a significant advance.
• They are targeting a huge global immunotherapy market valued at over $50 billion.
• The treatment has shown an acceptable safety profile to date.

⚠️ Risks / Considerations:

• These are early results from a small number of patients (8 out of 79 treated in Parts A & B). Larger Phase 3 trials are needed to confirm these benefits.
• As a clinical-stage company, MAIA is not yet profitable. Its success is entirely dependent on the future success of its drug candidates in clinical trials and, eventually, regulatory approval.
• The drug is still investigational and not approved for sale anywhere.

🧠 The Analogy

Developing a cancer drug is like trying to build a new, revolutionary security system for a city (the body). MAIA's approach is a two-step plan. First, they send in a specialist (ateganosine) to find and disable the intruders' (cancer cells') special escape tunnels (telomeres). Then, they call in the main police force (the immune system, boosted by cemiplimab) to mop up the now-vulnerable criminals and remember their faces for years. The early reports from the field are that some citizens have been safe for over two years without needing backup.

📇 Key Contacts & People

• Investor Relations Contact: Phone: +1 (872) 270-3518, Email: [email protected]
• Company Leadership: Vlad Vitoc, M.D., Founder and Chief Executive Officer.

🧩 Final Takeaway

MAIA Biotechnology has released compelling early data showing its novel cancer drug, ateganosine, may help patients with advanced lung cancer live much longer than expected, even after other treatments have failed. While these results from a small group are highly promising and target a massive market, the true test will be whether the ongoing larger Phase 3 trial can confirm this benefit.