Boehringer pays $600m for cancer vaccine deal
pharmafile | September 19, 2014 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Boehringer Ingelheim, cancer vaccine, oncology, pd1
Boehringer is hoping to expand its oncology pipeline with a new multi-million dollar pact for an investigational cancer vaccine.
The exclusive global license and development deal focuses on the German biotech CureVac and its therapeutic vaccine CV9202, which is in early clinical development for patients with certain types of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The deal will see CV9202 used in combination with Boehringer’s new NSCLC drug Giotrif (afatinib) along with chemo-radiation therapy in patients with advanced NSCLC that cannot be removed surgically.
The privately-owned German drugmaker says in a statement that it is investing €35 million ($45 million) upfront, with CureVac entitled to a further €430 million – plus royalties on any eventual sales – if the project is a success.
CureVac’s drug uses the firm’s mRNA-based technology to help patients’ own immune system to fight the tumour.
CV9202 has so far only had early-stage testing, but has shown safety and activity in generating immune responses against all anti-tumour antigens, according to the firm.
Professor Klaus Dugi, chief medical officer of Boehringer, says: “In our collaboration with CureVac, we will investigate combining existing treatments with the approach of sustained activation of the immune system. With this we hope to be able to develop new treatments and further expand our broad pipeline in lung cancer.”
New wave of therapeutic cancer vaccines
Boehringer has in recent years made greater strides into oncology and in 2013 gained FDA approval for its first ever cancer drug Giotrif for EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC.
The firm is now hoping to jump on the cancer vaccine bandwagon, as a number of other big pharma firms have been developing these types of medicines for years with new treatments now reaching the market.
Dendreon’s Provenge (sipuleucel-T) for late-stage prostate cancer was the first immuno-oncology treatment of its type to be approved anywhere in the world, and was closely followed by Bristol-Myers Squibb’s melanoma treatment Yervoy (ipilimumab), which can effectively ‘teach’ to recognise and destroy cancerous tumours.
Earlier this month Merck also became the first pharma firm to gain approval for the next generation of immuno-oncology treatments known as PD-1 inhibitors, after its melanoma treatment Keytruda (pembrolizumab) gained the FDA’s backing.
Using the body’s immune system to help fight cancer is the next big thing in oncology, and the PD-1 market alone is expected to be worth around $30 billion in annual sales by next decade as more treatments hit the market.
Unlike preventative vaccines, therapeutic ones (such as PD-1 drugs and Boehringer’s experimental treatment) are designed for patients who already have cancer.
Difficult research path
Boehringer is still some way off getting this treatment to market, and many companies have struggled to make this new way of treating cancer work. In April, GlaxoSmithKline threw in the towel on its MAGE-A3 cancer immunotherapeutic drug as it did not significantly extend disease-free survival.
This may be a bad omen for Boehringer as GSK too was studying this drug for NSCLC, although MAGE-A3 was being tested in a different group of NSCLC patients to those being trialled on CV9202.
Boehringer is also expanding its oncology pipeline outside of lung cancer and has two investigational compounds in Phase III clinical development, namely: nintedanib for distinct types of NSCLC (which is also being studied for the lung-scarring diseases IPF) and colorectal cancer, and volasertib in acute myeloid leukaemia.
Ben Adams
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