Member Info for Bermudashorts

Ah right - the joys of internet communication :)

No big deal, but I'm glad they did change it. If you're a biotech and you can include 'Oxford Science Park' in your registered address then why wouldn't you?

TF........but the address wasn't the same.

WTP/TF

It's taken a little while to RNS, but the change in registered office with Companies House was discussed a little while ago here. They've just changed the registered address to their new labs/offices in Oxford which makes sense. It looks like the first form submitted on 12th August had an incorrect address (missed out Oxford Science Park) and so a replacement was filed on the 15th with the full address.

I don't think there's any significance re. timing of the RNS - it's really just housekeeping.

A new paper from Genentech researchers looking at sources of neoantigens has just been published and has some relevance for holders here, not least because Scancell's work is discussed and 3 of Scancell's publications are cited.

Over recent years the focus has been on developing personalised therapies targeting neoantigens created by genetic mutations within a patient's tumour, but this approach has several drawbacks. In this paper, the authors discuss recent technological advances in the identification of novel sources of cancer neoantigens which may be good targets for immunotherapy. One of the sources identified by the Genentech researchers is post translational modifications (PTMs) and it's worth having a quick read of this section (4) of the paper.

Firstly, glycosylation is discussed. This is the PTM responsible for the creation of glycans which of course are the targets for Scancell's GlyMab platform. Very much in line with Lindy Durrant's previous comments, targeting glycans seems to have been a hard nut to crack for developers. They then go on to discuss citrullination and in this section highlight Scancell's Moditope research:-

' the interest for this PTM has recently increased and its evaluation as an immunotherapy target is ongoing. Citrullinated vimentin and enolase peptides have been shown to be presented on MHCII and recognized by CD4 T cells. Brentville et al. demonstrated that transduced tumor cells can present a citrullinated vimentin peptide' - 'Citrullinated vimentin peptide vaccines delayed tumor growth and increased survival rates of HLA-DR4 transgenic mice implanted with B16F1 tumors expressing HLA-DR4 [136] (Table 2). Interestingly, CD4 Th1 T cell responses from PBMCs from ovarian cancer patients and healthy donors were observed against citrullinated vimentin and enolase peptides [137]. While these results suggest promising candidates for immunotherapy, further studies are required to demonstrate tumor-specificity.

This paper shows the interest from industry in finding new sources of neoantigens and it's interesting to see how Genentech, who are of course owned by Roche see the lie of the land. It's encouraging that Scancell already have products in preclinical and clinical development targeting neoantigens from some of these sources and it's good to see that Genentech are very much aware of them.

https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/17/10131/htm

Carol Hardy's response to RXC004 has now been picked up by ITV News and has also featured in many other national and local newspapers.

'Mrs Hardy said: "I just can't believe it. I mean if I hadn't gone to Christie's I just wouldn't be alive. “The trial is what's kept me alive and Christies is what's kept me alive.'

This publicity can only help with recruitment, not only to this trial, but hopefully also to other ongoing cancer trials in the UK.

https://www.itv.com/news/border/2022-09-02/cant-believe-it-woman-survives-cancer-thanks-to-experimental-drug

Burble,

Yes it's only just over 2 months since the RNS was issued announcing Scancell's intention to develop T cell redirecting bispecific antibodies and afaik this is the first time Scancell have presented on this product. Interesting that they seem to have selected SC104 glycan mAb for development as a TCB antibody.

Regarding patents, Scancell have filed several applications in connection with both Avidimab and the glycan mAbs - the fucosyl GM1 application was lodged back in 2020 and published in March 2021. Worth noting perhaps that the claims specifically mention lung cancer.

https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2021043810&_cid=P10-L7K5G1-84290-4

https://investegate.co.uk/scancell-hlds--sclp-/rns/scancell-to-produce-tcb-antibodies/202206230700058729P/

Courtesy of marcus - article below details the response from one patient on Redx's RXC004 trial. Let''s hope these promising results are replicated in other patients and in other cancers.

Https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/manchester-carol-cumbria-penrith-b2155427.html

Ruck,

Worth remembering that Scancell have been building their new expanded team for over a year now and there are already scientists in place who are more than capable of carrying out the various assays required. This is additional resource in advance of the scale up of the ongoing clinical trials. For example, the link below will take you to a position filled in Oxford a few months ago - again PhD level and compare key duties with the current vacancy.

You're probably already be doing so, but if not, it's well worth keeping an eye on linkedin which gives a little glimpse of the breadth and depth of the expertise Scancell are gathering.

https://www.obn.org.uk/jobs/scientist-t-cell-immunology

I'm not sure Pfizer have invested or are associated with this Company.

As you say Ivy, this is a start up company aiming to match patients with clinical trials. The business model appears to be to list trials on their website and encourage the sponsors to 'claim' their trials and sign up to a basic patient match, screen and referral service. I don't know where they're drawing their data from in order to compile the list of trials - could be from CROs or one of the trial registries, but assume that's how Scancell's trial found its way onto their site - ie. via a bulk download.

As for Pfizer, the website features the logos of a number of companies but they mostly seem to be consultants, CROs etc. It doesn't actually say they're investors. Also note that Jeff Kindler is the ex-CEO of Pfizer, he now works in an advisory role for several healthcare and investment management companies. I suspect he and the other 3 people alongside him are all advisors to Power.

IMO

While it's quiet, the article below was written by Mount Sinai researchers and published in nature a couple of days ago. Most of it is heavy going but it's well worth reading the abstract and the sections headed 'Main' and 'Perspectives'. Some quotes:-

' Although 5 decades of research have yielded many failures, vaccines are now positioned for success for several reasons. Compared to prior decades, it is now clear that (1) T cells can treat (and, in some instances, cure) patients with cancer'

'Decades of slow progress have provided proof of principle that cancer vaccines can indeed elicit systemic tumor regression, durable remission and improvement in OS. We stand on the shoulders of pioneers who advanced our immunologic understanding and are on the precipice of using that understanding to develop rational and effective cancer vaccines, propelling the promising field of immunotherapy to a new frontier, saving resources, time and, ultimately, patients’ lives.'

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-022-00418-6

It's interesting to see the authors stress the importance of measuring and understanding the immune response:-

'effective immune monitoring will be critical to determining whether cancer vaccines accomplish their intended immunologic effects and to moving only immunologically effective candidates to larger studies and appropriate patient subset'

They go on to discuss new methods of deep immune monitoring that will be introduced over the next 5 years :-

' With such means, small trials will be able to quickly identify the most immunologically potent cancer vaccines, thereby avoiding large trials of less immunogenic vaccines. Deep immune monitoring will guide the field on a straightforward trajectory, evaluating the most promising approaches (likely neoantigen and in situ vaccines), to successful, randomized trials and ultimately commercialization.'

In the meantime, although we tend to focus on Modi1 efficacy data, this paper highlights the importance of the immunogenicity data that Scancell are due to release over the coming weeks. Worth remembering that one of the primary endpoints of the trial is cellular immune response to Modi-1.

rats,

Surely shareholders would want to and should know that their company now has a full time CEO ? I know for certain that Scancell were aware of shareholders concerns regarding LD's part time role, so why not communicate out the good news? It didn't have to be a regulatory RNS, they could have used RNS Reach or perhaps used the modi1 news last week as a reason to do some media with a proactive interview and announce it during the interview. Lots of options - who knows, perhaps they had planned to communicate it and still may.

Regarding your doomie fest post, LD's age is no secret and many have been hoping for a long while that she would commit to a full time role with Scancell. In fact it's been raised over and over by those who you'd probably describe as doomies. So I'm pretty sure the 'doomies' would see this as a positive and not as you describe in your 18.03

Johnny - yes thanks for that

TF - thanks for the confirmation in your 15.45

Crumbs - it suggests that she's reached retirement age with UoN and can now devote 100% of her time to Scancell. Assume this was the plan all along and why RG has been filling in temporarily.

TF

Interesting.

1) Wonder how he found out that LD has left UoN?
2) LD's postition brought wth it labs for Scancell in the new Biodiscovery Institute at the University of Nottingham. Wonder whether they'll be wanting or even allowed to keep them on if LD has left.
3) If not, will existing staff be prepared to move to the Oxford labs, were any of those staff also working part time for Scancell and part time for UoN?
4) If it's true, why have shareholders found out from a stock bulletin board that their CEO has moved from a part time to full time role and is no longer Professor of Immunotherapy at the University of Nottingham?

Chelsea,

Re. your comment:- ' Scancell still do not put PIs more in the picture'

It's literally only 5 working days since we've had a clinical trial update. They will update when there is news, but what else would you have them say/do?

Chester,

Thanks for your 22.08.

There will always be people involved in clinical trials who will be aware of sensitive information, whether that's the study investigator, the CRO, the company themselves, but all will be aware of their duty to maintain the strictest confidentiality and would be classed as insiders if the information was price sensitive.

Of course, if Scancell are aware that patients are responding, they'll want to communicate that to the market as soon as possible, but good clinical practice and following due process will always be the top priority. Publication of clinical trial data is a complex area and there are all sorts of ethical issues - particularly in ongoing open label trials where the data only comes from very small nos. of patients.

As I mentioned yesterday, we have no idea when patients will be scanned which means that we don't know how long it will be before Scancell are even aware of any tumour shrinkage. It may also be that they will want to see repeat scans after further doses to see whether any response is maintained or even increases before they communicate it out. For all of the above reasons, we need to be careful of expections re. timings of any announcements on tumour shrinkage from the small safety cohort of patients currently receiving the full Modi1 dose.

As others have said, we'll get an update in the annual report and at the AGM and we know the plan is to release immunogenicity data over the coming weeks.

Johnny,

Lindy Durrant has mentioned tumours melting away more than once - an example is below taken from a proactive interview back in 2021 (at about 2.20 minutes in).

'...........and suddenly those cancers disappeared in all our preclinical models. In all our years working with these things we've never seen anything like it, even big bulky tumours just melted away. So we're really excited that if we get into patients now and they just do a fraction of what they've done in our model system, we should make a big impact on some of these patients'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2n7Nh0BBAo

Konar,

Sorry posts crossed - took me so long to write my post (interrupted by phone)