ProActive25 Sep 2018 12:00
''The AIM-listed drug developer is at the vanguard of advances in the emerging field of immuno-oncology. The company's innovations have shown some early promise - particularly SCIB-1, which has been used with some success to treat melanoma.
The fight against cancer has moved into a new phase as drugs are developed that use the body’s immune system to tackle the killer disease. And AIM-listed Scancell Holdings Plc (LON:SCLP) is at the vanguard of advances in the emerging field of immuno-oncology and is working on two technologies that are showing early promise. In May, investors got behind the business, backing a placing and open offer of new shares that brought in £8.7mln before expenses.
That cash will fund early clinical trials of a drug generated using its Moditope platform as well as supporting the development of its more advanced assets. They are SCIB-1 and SCIB-2, which target and stimulate existing cells that make up the body’s defence mechanisms. At the turn of the year, Scancell reported the “compelling” results of a Phase I/II melanoma trial of SCIB-1, and the immunotherapy has continued to impress since. Another trial of SCIB-1, this time in combination with another type of drug called a checkpoint inhibitor, is set to kick off later this year.
Similarly, last December, Cancer Research UK agreed to fund and sponsor a Phase I/II lung cancer clinical study of its SCIB-2 vaccine, also in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor. Lung cancer remains one of the most difficult cancers to treat and accounts for more than a quarter of all cancer deaths. That’s more than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined. Around 228,000 people receive a lung cancer diagnosis in the US alone and more than 160,000 will not survive. A read-out from the combination study is due in the first half of next year.
Both SCIB-1 and SCIB-2 emerged from Scancell’s patented ImmunoBody platform.
MODI-1 is its first drug using the company’s Moditope technology. Initially, it will be deployed in the clinic to treat breast and ovarian cancers as well as sarcoma (tumours found in fat, muscle, bone and tendons). That study is expected to begin in 2019. MODI-1 acts to stimulate the production of killer CD4+ T cells that seek out and kill tumour cells that would otherwise be hidden from the immune system.
Scientists at the Karolinska Institute, led by Professors Lars Klareskog and Vivianne Malmström, uncovered an essential role for citrullinated proteins, which are normally associated with arthritis, in this process. Back in August, the company extended its collaboration with the rheumatology department of the Swedish medical research university.''
. . . tbc
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