part 27 Feb 2013 21:48
THE CONFERENCE THAT TIME FORGOT
As far are most commentators knew Scancell was working on just two ImmunoBody vaccines, SCIB1 to treat melanoma, which is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials and SCIB2 to treat lung cancer which is now ready for trialling. So until last weekend, Dendreon could have comforted itself with the notion that Scancell was swimming in its neighbour's pools. But owing to the diligent research and dogged inquiry of a poster on London South East Scancell Share Chat, Inanaco, Scancell has revealed that they are working on a new ImmunoBody vaccine to treat prostrate cancer as well! This has to be Dendreon's worst nightmare.
This astonishing news was initially 'leaked,' but went largely unreported, in a 15 minute presentation at the 12th International Conference on Progress in Vaccination Against Cancer (PIVAC) on Wednesday 12th September 2012. The paper entitled, "Development of new prostate cancer vaccine strategies using PAP as target antigen," described a collaborative project between Scancell and researchers at Nottingham Trent University.
The paper doesn't mince its words. It makes it abundantly clear that the intention is to use Scancell's ImmunoBody DNA vaccine technology to make a mass market successor to Dendreon's only commercial product, its prostrate cancer vaccine Provenge. SCIB3, as it will no doubt be called, will encode epitopes from the same antigen used in Provenge. But even more alarmingly for any of Scancell's competitors in the prostrate cancer field, Scancell seems to be preparing a prophylactic prostrate cancer vaccine as well, intended to prevent the disease developing in the first place. And if you don't think that Scancell are serious about this just take a look at what Professor Lindy Durrant said about Scancell's SCIB 1 vaccine as long ago as May 2010:
"In the short term, this could cure some patients with the disease, and in the long term it could be used to prevent people developing it in the first place."