Scancell Holdings Plc has inked a US collaboration deal with a leading lung cancer foundation that will accelerate the development of a ground-breaking immuno-oncology drug.
It is teaming up with the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute (ALCMI) and the Bonnie J Addario Lung Cancer Foundation to take its SCIB2 cancer vaccine in phase I/II clinical trials. Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will receive the treatment. ALCMI will assist Scancell with the design and development of the study, which is set to get underway in 2018 and complete around 18 months later.
“We have generated preclinical data that suggests that SCIB2 could be the ideal complement to existing and emerging checkpoint inhibitor therapies to treat NSCLC and so provide an effective new potential treatment option for patients with this devastating disease,” said Scancell CEO Richard Goodfellow.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lung cancer accounts for 27 percent of all cancer deaths, more than breast, prostate and colon cancer combined. More than 228,000 people receive a cancer diagnosis in the United States alone and more than 160,000 will not survive. It remains one of the most difficult cancers to treat.
“This partnership enables us to access an important clinical programme that could also accelerate the development of this ground-breaking immunotherapy technology,” said ALCMI president Steven Young.
SCIB2 was developed using the company’s ImmunoBody cancer vaccine platform. It is a new breed of immunotherapy treatment that stimulates the body’s own defences to potentially treat and prevent cancer. SCIB2 has the potential to complement existing treatments and has potential value where current treatments either do not work or are not available. By stimulating immune responses to specific lung cancer antigens, SCIB2 should assist the body in targeting and fighting NSCLC, leading to longer survival rates.
“Immunotherapy has dramatically improved many patients’ outcomes across various cancer types. One of the next steps is how we can further enhance the immune response to cancer. Early clinical data on ImmunoBody® suggests it is extremely well tolerated and may significantly improve outcomes, which would be ideal. I’m excited to work with Scancell and hopeful that we will take another important step in the fight against lung cancer,” said Jacob M. Sands, MD, assistant professor, medical oncology, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts.
To read more see the article featured on Proactive Investors or on Scancell’s website.