Onyvax receives EC grant
Onyvax Limited, the biotechnology company developing novel cancer therapies has been awarded a European Community grant worth Euro 4.2m.
Onyvax Limited, the biotechnology company developing novel cancer therapies has been awarded a European Community grant worth Euro 4.2m.
The three-year, multi-national project will involve identifying abnormal proteins (cancer biomarkers) in the blood or tissue of patients with ovarian, breast or prostate cancer that could indicate whether they are likely to benefit from vaccine therapy.
The project - the European Network for the Identification and Validation of Antigens and Biomarkers in Cancer and their Application in Clinical Tumour Immunology (ENACT) - is being funded by the EC under its Sixth Framework Programme which primarily serves to strengthen the scientific and technological bases of European industry.
Patients at clinical centres across Europe will be asked to take part in the study and the response of patients' vaccine therapy will be closely monitored. The identification of new cancer biomarkers could make it possible to ascertain from a blood sample whether a patient has the ability to respond to a certain type of vaccination. This could highlight new ways of producing vaccines to stimulate the body's immune system to kill off cancer cells.
Commenting on the project, Anthony Walker, Chief Executive of Onyvax, said: 'We are delighted to be participating in such a prestigious research collaboration. This research will build on our recent discovery of the signature immunological profile which potentially predicts the clinical responses seen in our recent Onyvax-P Phase II clinical trial in prostate cancer patients.'
This is the second project that Onyvax is involved in that is funded by the EC's Sixth Framework Programme. In October 2004 Onyvax announced that it is working with a European research consortium to develop new vaccine therapies for lung cancer.