By Ben Hirschler
LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - The idea of using vaccines tofight cancer has received a shot in the arm from a $1 billiondeal between Bristol-Myers Squibb and Bavarian Nordic.
The agreement gives the U.S. drugmaker an exclusive optionto the Danish biotech firm's therapeutic prostate cancer vaccineProstvac and signals that such shots may have a bright futurewhen combined with so-called checkpoint inhibitor drugs.
Shares in Bavarian Nordic surged 35 percent on Wednesday onnews of the Bristol-Myers tie-up, under which it could receiveup to $975 million, including an upfront payment of $60 million.
Unlike traditional preventative vaccines, therapeutic onesare designed for people with established disease and the aim isto boost the patient's immune system to keep tumours at bay.
Unfortunately, they have run into problems in practice,leading to a series of failures with experimental products suchas Merck KGaA's Stimuvax and GlaxoSmithKline's MAGE-A3.
The one vaccine to make it to market, Dendreon's Provenge, has not been a commercial success.
But Bristol-Myers thinks vaccines, which trigger a responsefrom the immune system's "foot soldiers", can play an importantrole when given in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, likeits drug Yervoy, which take the brakes off other immune cells.
A week ago, the U.S. company and its Danish partner releasedearly data from a study involving 30 patients showing that 20percent of men with advanced prostate cancer remained alive 80months after starting treatment with the most promising dose ofProstvac and Yervoy.
The idea of combining therapeutic cancer vaccines withcheckpoint inhibitors has gained traction among researchers inrecent months and was a talking-point at the European Society ofMedical Oncology annual congress in Madrid in September.
Roche Chief Executive Severin Schwan also toldReuters last year that the Swiss group, which is the world'slargest maker of cancer drugs, was exploring ways of combiningits checkpoint inhibitors with cancer vaccines.
Companies including Roche, Bristol-Myers, Merck & Co and AstraZeneca are investing heavily in ways to harnessthe immune system against cancer as they chase an immunotherapymarket that some analysts predict will eventually generateannual sales of more than $30 billion.
(Editing by Jane Merriman)