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Crumbs, the original 2016 project funded by the Headcase Cancer Trust was looking at adding HAGE to SCIB1 to target glioblastoma. Looks like the project has been extended to look at TRP2 and WT1 so I guess they must believe that this combination will perform better than HAGE/TRP2.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/scancell-hlds--sclp-/rns/development-of-immunobody--vaccine/201606020700109671Z/

CC / Crumbs thanks for the links. Good stuff.

Good to see independent research highlighting the advantages of Parsortix over other systems - in this case the AdnaTest.

Worth noting perhaps that AdnaTest is the current offering from Qiagen who acquired the tech. back in 2015.

Crumbs, as ever some good points.

I'm sure that every timescale he's given (and missed!) has come from the R&D team so I think there's an element of shooting the messenger here. Nevertheless, handling investor relations and acting as a buffer to allow the R&D team to get on with the job in hand is an important part of his role.

Crumbs,

I think one of the biggest issues is around communication of timescales and expectations. SCIB2 is a perfect example.

Funding is so tough for UK early stage bios and I can honestly understand the pressure on AIM biotechs. in particular to portray the best case, positive scenario. Going back to the announcement of the CRUK deal, they could and possibly should have mentioned the nanovesicle work still to be done and given a realistic idea of timescales. The fact that they didn't has resulted in unrealistic expectations from shareholders. Inevitably reality catches up with you and the end result is disappointment.

Ray,

Yes and that is the frustration here.

The CRUK website was updated in January and unfortunately still shows SCIB2 at an exploratory stage. Although the deal with CRUK was announced in December 2017, my understanding is that Scancell had to complete their preclinical research on the nanovesicle delivery system before CRUK could start preparing for the trial in earnest. That work was completed and handed over to CRUK in May 2019.

I'm hoping that CRUK will update their site again in April and it'll show that SCIB2 has at least moved on to a preclinical stage.

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/funding-for-researchers/our-research-infrastructure/our-centre-for-drug-development/centre-for-drug-development-strategy-and-portfolio#portfolio0

OT but worth mentioning a deal announced today between Bicycle Therapeutics and Genentec with an upfront payment of $30m and potential total value of $1.7 billion.

Have been following Bicycle Therapeutics for a while - a Cambridge University spin out company founded by Nobel Prize winner Sir Gregory Winter with a lead product being taken through a phase I/IIa trial by CRUK. Well done to them, fantastic to see a success story arising from UK innovation.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200225005302/en/

I wasn't aware of any collaboration between Angle and Bioview but interesting that they have been working on HER2 testing. Worth noting that Bioview already have a collaboration and distribution agreement in place with Abbott who of course also collaborated on Angle's breast cancer trial.

bios today:

European bios today
-4.9% avg / -5.2% median, only 12 gainers, likely the worst session of past 5 years

https://twitter.com/biotechradar_eu/status/1232028726654881792/photo/1

Ruck - Sorry, I'm with you now.

Viruses constantly mutate and shift, that's why the flu vaccine changes each year. So the ability to quickly adapt a vaccine to target new antigens is much more important when it comes to viruses. The issue with ImmunoBody is the length of time it takes to manufacture - too long perhaps for a vaccine tackling viruses.

Crumbs, yes that link is also at the bottom of my 16.01

Ruck,

Why do you think that Scancell are looking to vaccines for aids and coronavirus to raise funds? AFAIK Scancell have been absolutely clear, they are only interested in developing cancer vaccines.

shareguard,

Probably not general knowledge but going back a few years, an ImmunoBody flu vaccine was developed as a result of a collaboration between Scancell and Cambridge based Immbio Therapeutics. As far as I know, the vaccine, FluBioVax didn't get as far as clinical trials and Immbio was closed down last year.

http://www.immbio.net/vaccines/exploratory-immunobodies

http://www.immbio.net/uploads/documents/Poster_Fusion_Proteins_FluBioVax.pdf

Inanaco, Yep, that most certainly is wind up.

Wild, drug developers have always striven to achieve the holy grail of efficacy without toxicity and it's never been a question of just jumping in and managing side effects when they happen, nor just simply accepting them.

WTP

Your real name isn't Richard Barrett by any chance? :)

Following article may be of interest to some. It's a brief review of the advances in melanoma research during 2019 and although not particularly in depth, it does give an insight into how the field is evolving. Looking towards 2020, there are some interesting comments at the end regarding Genetech's triplet therapy clinical trial. Wonder whether they'll be presenting the results at AACR in April?

https://www.curemelanoma.org/blog/article/melanoma-research-advances-2019-in-review

We all know that the prinicple behind Moditope is targeting proteins that have undergone post translational modifications(PTMs). In the case of Modi1, the PTM is citrullination and one of the primary targets is the protein Vimentin.

Some interesting research from Asahikawa Medical University, Japan was published yesterday - 'Phosphorylated vimentin as an immunotherapeutic target against metastatic colorectal cancer'

Phosphorylation is another very common post translational modification and the researchers from Asahikawa have found that phosphorylated vimentin is upregulated in colorectal cancer and 'targeting phosphorylated vimentin is a feasible approach for the treatment of metastatic tumors while sparing non-tumor cells'. Their conclusion - 'These results suggest that immunotherapy targeting phosphorylated vimentin could be promising for metastatic CRC patients.'

Link is below but unfortunately the whole paper is behind a paywall so you can only access the abstract but worth noting that Lindy Durrant's 2016 research on citrullinated vimentin is cited. Really good to see interest building in this field, it can only help Scancell's cause.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00262-020-02524-9

Chelsea,

Some fair points but it's not a question of CH increasing his holding - he doesn't actually own any Scancell shares at all.

Inanaco - agreed!

Inanaco

This is another one of those occasions where we'll have to agree to differ. My understanding is that it's just one upfront payment of around €45m for the agreement to identify two TCR candidates and thereafter milestones of up to €550m per candidate. No matter, whichever way you look at it, it's a big deal.

I'd be a bit wary of applying those values to Moditope. At the moment it's enough just to see the demand for TCR therapies from big pharma manifesting itself in significant deals and all we can do is hope that Scancell are able to tap into that demand.