Scancell Could Explode Any Time!
At the moment Scancell Holdings (SCNLF) stands at 53 cents a share. Last April Inovio, which also develops DNA cancer vaccines was also at 53 cents and had a market cap lower than Scancell's is now. Then Inovio's Dr. Kim, started putting it about that there was a 'big partner' in the wings. The share price soared on the back of this and when a deal actually surfaced in September the shares exploded. Roche had decided to license two of Inovio's preclinical vaccines; one for prostate cancer and one for hepatitis. Today Inovio's shares stand at around $3.70. Nothing like a deal with a big partner to get shares to take
So what's the relevance for Scancell? Well it all comes down to the increasing interest in combining DNA cancer vaccines with a new class of drugs known as PD-1 inhibitors. Roche, Bristol Myers Squibb and Merck & Co are the big three manufacturers of these anti-PD-1 drugs which have boomed in interest, making them the big pharmaceutical story of 2013.
PD-1 inhibitors work by blocking the anti-immune effects of the PD-1 protein which cancer cells use to switch off killer CD8 T cells preventing them from attacking and eradicating tumors. Problem is, these drugs that put pay to cancer's PD-1 protection are only effective in helping around a third of recipients to fight the disease.
So Roche has had the bright idea of combining DNA cancer vaccines with the company's PD-1 inhibitor to give the treatment a 'one two punch.' So far Roche has only managed to do a deal for one preclinical DNA prostate cancer vaccine from Inovio.
But Roche's PD-1 inhibitor targets a whole range of other cancers such as malignant melanoma and lung cancer. Inovio doesn't have DNA vaccines to target these cancers but Scancell does. In fact Scancell is the only company that has DNA vaccines to target these conditions.
And it doesn't end there. Bristol and Merck, should they wish to emulate their rival, don't have any DNA vaccines to combine with their inhibitors at all. Scancell and Inovio are the only two companies developing DNA vaccines to target specific cancers that are suitable for combining with these new drugs. So with potentially three anti-PD-1 giants fighting over a handful of available vaccines, Scancell is hot favourite for the next big deal.
Of course Scancell is arguably a lot further along than Inovio with its SCIB1 DNA vaccine to treat malignant melanoma at Phase 2. Inovio does have a vaccine in Phase 2 to treat Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN) but this is a premalignant non-cancerous condition.
Last August the Nottingham Post reported that Scancell had receive 'unsolicited interest' in both its vaccine platforms, ImmunoBody and Moditope, from large pharmaceutical companies. And tantalizingly on 26th January 2014 Matthew Goodman in London's Sunday Times, referring to the encouraging data from SCIB1's Phase 2 trials, reported Scancell's Joint CEO Richard Goodfellow as saying, “We are looking at 2014 as the year we consummate a relationship or a deal to take this forward.”
At the moment Scancell's shares are 53 cents but they have a broker's target of £1.27 or around $2.10. But if the awaited licensing deals for either SCIB1 for melanoma or SCIB2 for lung cancer suddenly materializes, as investors hope, Scancell's shares could easily smash that target!
