Scancell Holdings Plc, (PLUS:SCLP), the developer of therapeutic cancer vaccines, today announces a research collaboration with immatics biotechnologies GmbH ("immatics") to explore the development of novel ImmunoBody® vaccines for colorectal cancer.
“Our research collaboration with immatics will create the opportunity to bring together two world class technologies. We will be working together with immatics to evaluate the combination of the immatics' TUMAP technology with Scancell's ImmunoBody® technology for the development of novel vaccines for the treatment of colorectal cancer.”
Immatics discovers and develops tumor-associated peptides (TUMAPs) for the immunotherapy of cancer. TUMAPs with the highest specificity for particular cancers are identified directly from primary human tumour tissue samples. From thousands of identified TUMAPs the most suitable ones are selected and combined to a single multi-peptide product to form a therapeutic cancer vaccine. The goal is to provoke a number of specific T-cell responses which finally result in the destruction of tumour cells presenting the TUMAPs.
Immatics' most advanced product, IMA901, has been evaluated in a Europe-wide multi-centre Phase II clinical trial in renal cancer. Positive data of this Phase II study have recently been published at the ASCO 2010 meeting. Immatics' pipeline also includes IMA910 for the treatment of colorectal carcinoma which has recently entered a large Phase I/II clinical trial.
Scancell's first vaccine using its patented ImmunoBody® technology is SCIB1, a novel DNA vaccine being developed for the treatment of melanoma, which is currently in Phase 1 clinical trials. An advantage of Scancell's Immunobody® platform is that it specifically targets dendritic cells, leading to a significant enhancement of the immune response. This enhanced immune response against TRP-2 (a melanoma protein called Tyrosinase-Related Protein 2) is anticipated to lead to the inhibition and regression of both primary and metastatic melanoma tumour growth.
In the research collaboration with immatics, colorectal cancer-specific TUMAPs will be incorporated into ImmunoBody® constructs to create ImmunoBody® vaccines targeted towards colorectal cancer. If the research project is successful, immatics and Scancell will explore the further development of any product candidates.
Paul Higham, CEO of Immatics said: "'We are very pleased to enter this research collaboration with Scancell as the colorectal TUMAPs identified by immatics have the potential to complement and enhance Scancell's ImmunoBody technology. We eagerly await the results."
Professor Lindy Durrant, Chief Executive Officer of Scancell, commented: "Our research collaboration with immatics will create the opportunity to bring together two world class technologies. We will be working together with immatics to evaluate the combination of the immatics' TUMAP technology with Scancell's ImmunoBody® technology for the development of novel vaccines for the treatment of colorectal cancer."
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