What is Saltikva?

Saltikva is an investigational medicine from Salspera, Inc.: a live, weakened (attenuated) strain of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium engineered to carry the human gene for interleukin-2, an immune-signaling protein, and given by mouth. Salspera, Inc. is developing Saltikva as an immunotherapy for solid tumors, intended to be given with chemotherapy, with pancreatic cancer as the lead indication, and it is being studied in cancer clinical trials. In an open-label, non-randomized Phase 2 trial in metastatic pancreatic cancer, patients receiving Saltikva with FOLFIRINOX had median overall survival of 18.6 months (25 patients) and 20.3 months in a subgroup of 20, versus 11.56 months in same-site historical FOLFIRINOX controls (n=40), and the authors call the findings hypothesis-generating. In the subgroup of 20, 70% had a partial response (95% CI 45.5–87.9%), vs a 31.6% objective response rate for FOLFIRINOX alone in the randomized PRODIGE 4/ACCORD 11 trial (Conroy et al., N Engl J Med 2011;364:1817–25 ↗), and in a post-hoc review 16 of those 20 patients (80%) progressed without new metastases (J Cell Immunol 2026;8(2):48–52 ↗). Saltikva has not been approved by the FDA or any other regulator for any use. Saltikva is the trade name; its scientific name is Salmonella-IL2. Information about Saltikva here is not medical advice.