another competitive (barely, if at all?) project.......
Friday March 30, 8:30 am Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: Biomira Inc.
Biomira to Proceed Independently With Autologous
Vaccine Program
EDMONTON, March 30 /PRNewswire/ - Biomira Inc. (Nasdaq: BIOM - news;
TSE:BRA - news) today announced it had terminated its agreement with Biovector
Therapeutics SA of Toulouse, France for the co-development of Biomira's idiotypic vaccine
against B-cell lymphoma. Biomira's idiotypic vaccine involves the use of a patient's own
cancerous cells to develop a highly specific vaccine. Biomira plans to pursue this autologous
vaccine program independently.
``As a result of significant changes to Biovector's corporate structure, the company decided
to focus its remaining resources on developing their own drug delivery systems,'' stated Alex
McPherson, MD, PhD, President and CEO of Biomira. ``Biovector retains no rights to the
idiotypic vaccine product, as a result of their refocusing.''
Biomira completed enrolment of the Idiotypic Vaccine Phase I trial with 10 evaluable
patients with follicular lymphoma. The objective of the trial was to establish safety and
immune response profiles. Prior to study entry, patients had undergone chemotherapy and
achieved either full remission or a 90 per cent partial response. The vaccine was
administered via subcutaneous injection over a five month period in seven patients to date.
Biomira's investigational idiotypic lymphoma vaccines contain a patient- specific tumour
antigen obtained from the patient's own cancer cells, combined with IL-2, a potent immune
enhancer, encapsulated in a liposome for more effective delivery.
``Biomira has regulatory clearance to move the autologous vaccine product candidate into a
further Phase Ib trial in 2001,'' said Alex McPherson, MD, PhD. ``We believe the underlying
technology has huge potential for advancing the immunotherapeutic approach to cancer
treatment. We are excited about the patents issued or about to issue, announced earlier this
week, and we look forward to building value in this program as we move forward.''
Biomira's proprietary idiotypic vaccine technology represents a new generation of autologous
therapeutic vaccines, where the cost of treatment and inconvenience for the patient has been
minimized through dramatically reducing the time required between sampling of tumour cells from the patient and injection of the
Liposomal IL-2 vaccine back into the patient.
This program is being conducted through Biomira Inc.'s wholly owned subsidiary, Biomira USA of Cranbury, NJ in
collaboration with the National Cancer Institute and other Cancer Centers in New Jersey.
Biomira is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of innovative therapeutic approaches to cancer
management. The commitment to the treatment of cancer currently focuses on the development of synthetic vaccines and novel
strategies for cancer immunotherapy. We are The Cancer Vaccine People®.
This release may contain forward-looking statements. Various factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those
projected in forward-looking statements, including those predicting the timing of clinical trials, availability or adequacy of
financing or the efficacy of products. Although the Company believes that the forward-looking statements contained herein are
reasonable, it can give no assurance that the Company's expectations are correct. All forward-looking statements are expressly
qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
SOURCE: Biomira Inc. |
