Biomira to Proceed Independently With Autologous Vaccine Program
EDMONTON, Mar 30, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Biomira Inc. (NASD: BIOM) (TSE:BRA) 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(R).
SOURCE Biomira Inc. |
