BMS establishes cancer vaccine network
pharmafile | June 1, 2012 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing |
Bristol-Myers Squibb has formed a network of ten institutions to advance work on using the body’s own immune system to fight cancer.
The International Immuno-Oncology Network (II-ON) links pharma and academics to help further the science behind this area of cancer research, with the hope that it will lead in turn to drug discovery and development.
Those signed up include the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Cancer Research in the UK, along with five organisations from the US plus one each from Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands.
Turning research findings into both trials and clinical practice are among the other raisons d’etre of the new venture.
“The II-ON facilitates a public-private partnership that will leverage intellectual capabilities across a global network,” said BMS chief scientific officer Elliott Sigal.
“The shared commitment of all those participating in this collaboration is to evolve our understanding of immuno-oncology towards our ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes,” he added.
The approval in Europe last summer of skin cancer vaccine Yervoy was described then by the company as “the first outcome of BMS’s commitment to immuno-oncology”.
The drug is expected to be a blockbuster, and made over $500 million in its first 12 months on the market.
A year ago BMS also signed a $465 million deal for the rights to IPH2102, a potential first-in-class treatment for cancer from Marseille-based Innate Pharma.
The early-stage biologic may be able to harness a patient’s immune system in the fight against cancer and will be developed in a range of oncology indications.
BMS insists that the role of immuno-oncology in research is growing: last year the concept of ‘evading immune destruction’ was added to the ‘Hallmarks of Cancer’, a widely-referenced article on the underlying principles of the disease.
In addition to BMS and the UK institutions, the II-ON members are:
- Clinica Universidad Navarra, Pamplona
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston
- The Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Portland
- Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif
- Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, Naples
- Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Baltimore
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
- The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam
- The University of Chicago
Adam Hill
