28 March 2014 | by MarsBarsAtDawn
Scancell, founded in 1997, hit the ground running with an early, protein version, of their ImmunoBody vaccine which successfully treated osteosarcoma. The vaccine was powered by one of Scancell's first discoveries, the105AD7 antibody. Two terminally ill children were allowed to be treated with this experimental vaccine in 1998 on compassionate grounds. These two girls, one aged eight the other sixteen, had full metastatic bone cancer that had spread to their lungs and were expected to die. They were both saved and are alive today with healthy children of their own. No other company developing DNA cancer vaccines can make such a claim.
In 2006 Scancell sold its non-vaccine direct killing antibody business to Ariana Therapeutics to concentrate on the development of their ImmunoBody DNA vaccine platform. The resulting upfront and milestone payments to Scancell have funded much of the company's subsequent development, lessening the need for frequent dilutions so common to other biotechs.
Since then several ImmunoBody products have started development. Scancell's lead vaccine to treat melanoma, SCIB1, has been in trials since 2010 and has recently posted successful Phase 2 results in resected patients.
Interestingly Scancell has had to organized a trial extension for this vaccine in patients with tumor load because an early dose escalation study, completed in December 2012, showed SCIB1 had the power to completely eradicate lung metastases. This is something that no other dendritic cell cancer vaccine, treating metastatic melanoma, has ever done without a toxic additive.
The astonishing performance of this vaccine has seen SCIB1 gain prompt Orphan Drug Designation from the FDA. There is also the SCIB2 vaccine to treat lung cancer which is ready for human trials and a number of other ImmunoBody vaccines in development, including one to treat prostate cancer.
But the most remarkable achievement to date is the discovery of a whole new class of immunotherapy agents which stimulate the production of killer CD4 T cells. These cells, which are rarely found in nature, differ from the CD4 cells in today's vaccines that perform the role of helper cells. They are also greatly different from commonly utilized killer CD8 T cells in that killer CD4 T cells are capable of eradicating even the largest tumors without any need for checkpoint inhibitors. Scancell's CEO, Professor Lindy Durrant, who is behind the Moditope discovery has described the product's impact on tumors as being the strongest that she has ever witnessed in her professional career as a cancer immunologist. It is Scancell's intention to make the use of this discovery available to companies and government agencies worldwide for use in their own vaccines.
Scancell saves lives of children with terminal cancer:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/175410/Cance...ts-tumours
Source:
http://www.stockhouse.com/companies/bullboard...d=22370946