Bavarian Nordic obtains rights to new cancer vaccine product candidates
Includes rights to immunotherapy product candidate for multiple cancer indications
Bavarian Nordic subsidiary BN ImmunoTherapeutics has entered into an expanded strategic partnership with the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is the US federal government's leading cancer research organisation
Under the licensing and Co-operative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA), the NCI and Bavarian Nordic will jointly develop new off-the-shelf product candidates for the treatment of multiple cancers and a new technology platform based on NCI's cancer vaccine technology.
Through the expanded collaboration with the NCI and license with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bavarian Nordic has obtained certain rights to CVAC-301 (formerly developed as PANVAC), an off-the-shelf, cancer immunotherapy product candidate. CVAC-301 originates from the same poxvirus technology platform as PROSTVAC, the company's lead product candidate licensed from the NIH in 2008 and also being developed in collaboration with NCI under a CRADA.
‘The product candidate and technology platform significantly expand our cancer vaccine portfolio and enhance our position as a leader in recombinant immunotherapies for the treatment and prevention of life-threatening diseases,’ said Reiner Laus, president of the Bavarian Nordic’s Cancer Vaccine Division.
‘As already shown with PROSTVAC in prostate cancer and CVAC-301 in other cancer indications, this technology platform holds great promise in the future treatment of patients with several types of cancers who today face a limited number of treatment alternatives.
While PROSTVAC incorporates a single antigen overexpressed in prostate cancer (PSA), CVAC-301 incorporates two antigens (CEA and MUC-1) that are overexpressed in other major cancers, including breast, lung and ovarian, which makes CVAC-301 potentially applicable in various cancers.
Under the agreement the Company will manufacture additional vaccine constructs for the NCI. As part of this collaborative effort, NCI will fund and conduct certain preclinical and clinical studies to evaluate the product candidates alone and in combination with other modalities. The funding can include Phase 3 studies.