The British biotech, Scancell has announced 5 year survival results, the gold standard to measure durable effects of a cancer therapy for its stage III and IV melanoma cancer vaccine.
Scancell, launched in 1997 is a spin-out from the University of Nottingham, and is among a host of British firms competing for a chunk of the expected $50bn (£39bn) a year global immuno-oncology (IO) drugs market.
The ongoing Phase I/II trial for its cancer vaccine had recruited 20 patients treated with three different doses, of which eight experienced recurrence of their cancer, and two of them died; and an additional eight patients have reportedly already reached 5 years of survival.
Although the trial has delivered promising results, increasing the numbers to provide solid statistic data is crucial.
Scancell’s candidate, SCIB1 is a DNA vaccine that encodes an antibody that contains four sequences from two melanoma antigens, gp100 and TRP-2; these epitopes stimulate strong immune responses in both CD4 and CD8 T cells. The vaccine is shown to increase the expression of PD-L1 on the tumor, achieving 100% survival – a number that is not observed with checkpoint inhibitors alone.
The next step in this direction is a Phase II trial
in the US that will test its vaccine candidate SCBI1 in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor. The company is planning to file an IND application this year to obtain FDA approval for the trial.
