Oxford BioMedica’s lung cancer candidate shows promise
pharmafile | October 25, 2005 | News story | Research and Development |
A promising antibody developed by UK-based Oxford BioMedica is poised to enter clinical trials to treat lung cancer.
The 5T4 antibody-targeted cancer therapy is being developed by Wyeth, which licensed rights to Oxford BioMedica's antibody against the tumour antigen 5T4, which is expressed on the surface of a wide range of solid tumours.
In one pre-clinical model of lung cancer, 100% of mice treated with the 5T4-targeted immunoconjugate survived through an observation period of 150 days, whereas those treated with vehicle or a non-binding immunoconjugate had a median survival of 40 to 60 days.
The company's most advanced product is TroVax a vaccine-based therapy which targets the same tumour antigen 5T4 and is currently in phase II trials as first line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer with concomitant chemotherapy.
The company says it has spent the last nine months considering the next stage of development of TroVax in various cancer types through detailed consultation with the FDA, leading international clinicians and potential partners.
It says the overwhelming body of opinion is that TroVax is ready for phase III trials with the exact scope of the trials the final area for discussion. The company says this would keep it on track for regulatory approval by 2009.
Oxford BioMedica faces competition from a number of other biotech companies developing prostate cancer vaccines. Two US companies, San Francisco's Cell Genesys, Seattle-based Dendreon both have products in phase III, while UK-based Onyvax has a vaccine in phase II.
The Oxford company has confirmed to investors it is now looking for a partner from big pharma to co-market TroVax, and hopes to sign a deal before the end of 2006.
The product is just one of a number of vaccine-based preventative or therapeutic treatments for cancer now being developed across the industry. A recent report by Arrowhead estimates the cancer vaccine market will be worth around $6 billion by 2010.
The UK gene therapy specialist's pipeline also includes neurotherapy research and its lead product in this area is a gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, which is expected to enter clinical trials in 2006.
Oxford BioMedica also licenses its in-house gene delivery technology to other biotech and pharma companies for use in research.
The company says LentiVector, a lentivirus-based gene delivery technology, is one of the most powerful technologies for the delivery of genes to a wide range of cell and tissue types.
The technology has a wide variety of uses in therapeutic products and as a drug discovery tool for target validation and the creation of targeted disease models. Licensees and partners include Biogen Idec, Merck, Pfizer and Viragen.
The company recently agreed a seventh licence on the technology, with a major pharma firm whose identity was not disclosed.
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