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RNS Number : 4154V
Scancell Holdings Plc
30 January 2017
Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute and Scancell Holdings PLC
Form Partnership to Advance Lung Cancer Vaccine Clinical Trials
Collaboration builds a world-class network to develop innovative
treatment alternatives for lung cancer patients
(January 30, 2017) - The Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute
("ALCMI"), the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation ("ALCF")
and Scancell Holdings PLC ("Scancell") today announce a
collaboration to evaluate the use of Scancell's second innovative
cancer vaccine, SCIB2, from its ImmunoBody(R) platform to treat
non-small cell lung cancer ("NSCLC").
Scancell's ImmunoBody(R) cancer vaccine platform is a novel
immunotherapy treatment under development that stimulates the
immune system to potentially treat and prevent cancer. The Company
recently successfully completed a Phase 1/2 clinical trial with
SCIB1 in patients with melanoma.
The Addario Advanced Collaboration Program brings patients into
clinical trials from ALCMI's extensive research consortium of
international researchers and member institutions and ALCF's
patient support programs. ALCMI plans to assist Scancell in the
design and development of a Phase 1/2 clinical trial with SCIB2 in
patients with NSCLC which is planned to begin in 2018 and complete
approximately 18 months later.
"This partnership enables us to access an important clinical
program that could also accelerate the development of this
groundbreaking immunotherapy technology," said ALCMI President and
COO Steven Young. "Combining our two foundations' unique resources
will increase patient engagement with the goal to bring new
treatment options to non-small cell lung cancer patients," added
Bonnie J. Addario, a 12-year lung cancer survivor and founder and
chair of ALCF and founder of ALCMI.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
lung cancer accounts for 27 percent of all cancer deaths, more than
breast, prostate and colon cancer combined. More than 228,000
people receive a cancer diagnosis in the United States alone and
more than 160,000 will not survive. It remains one of the most
difficult cancers to treat.
"Immunotherapy has dramatically improved many patients' outcomes
across various cancer types. One of the next steps is how we can
further enhance the immune response to cancer. Early clinical data
on ImmunoBody(R) suggests it is extremely well tolerated and may
significantly improve outcomes, which would be ideal. I'm excited
to work with Scancell and hopeful that we will take another
important step in the fight against lung cancer," said Jacob M.
Sands, MD, assistant professor, medical oncology, Lahey Hospital
& Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts.
SCIB2 has the potential to complement existing treatments and
has potential value where current treatments either do not work or
are not available. By stimulating immune responses to specific lung
cancer antigens, SCIB2 should assist the body in targeting and
fighting NSCLC, leading to longer survival rates.
"We have generated preclinical data that suggests that SCIB2
could be the ideal complement to existing and emerging checkpoint
inhibitor therapies to treat NSCLC and so provide an effective new
potential treatment option for patients with this devastating
disease," said Scancell CEO Richard Goodfellow.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014 (MAR).
###
Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute
Perry Communications
Julia Spiess Lewis Group +1 916-658-0144
Julia@perrycom.com
Scancell Holdings Plc
Dr. John Chiplin, Executive Scancell Holdings
Chairman Plc +1 858 900 2646
Dr. Richard Goodfellow, +44 (0) 20 3727
CEO 1000
Freddy Crossley (Corporate Panmure Gordon +44 (0) 20 7886
Finance) & Co 2500
Tom Salvesen (Corporate +44 (0) 20 7886
Broking) 2500
+44 (0) 20 3727
Mo Noonan/Simon Conway FTI Consulting 1000
About the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute (ALCMI)
The Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute (ALCMI, voiced as
"Alchemy") was founded by advanced stage lung cancer survivor
Bonnie J Addario in 2008 as a nonprofit organization. Working in
tandem with our "partner" foundation the Bonnie J. Addario Lung
Cancer Foundation (ALCF), ALCMI and ALCF contribute resources and
join together to power collaborative, patient-centric initiatives
in genetic (molecular) testing, therapeutic discoveries, targeted
treatments and early detection. ALCMI overcomes barriers to
collaboration via a world-class team of investigators from 25
institutions in the USA, UK and Europe, supported by dedicated
research infrastructures such as centralized project management and
biorepositories and data systems. ALCMI directly facilitates
research by combining scientific expertise found at leading
academic institutions with patient access through our network of
community cancer centers - accelerating novel research advancements
to lung cancer patients. By providing access to critical masses of
patient stakeholders, academic, community and industry researchers,
ALCMI, in partnership with the ALCF, is making progress towards its
goal of transforming lung cancer into a chronically managed disease
by 2023.
About the Addario Advanced Collaboration Program
The Addario Advances Collaboration Program accelerates novel
therapeutic medical device and diagnostics into patient trials. The
program incentivizes the collaboration of the non-profit community
and emerging life science companies to reduce development times,
improve clinical trial designs, reduce costs and, most critically,
accelerates more effective diagnostics and therapies to lung cancer
patients globally.
About Scancell
Scancell is developing novel immunotherapies for the treatment
of cancer based on its ImmunoBody(R) and Moditope(R) technology
platforms. Scancell's first ImmunoBody(R), SCIB1 is being developed
for the treatment of melanoma. Data from the Phase 1/2 clinical
trial demonstrate that SCIB1, when used as monotherapy, has a
marked effect on tumour load, produces a melanoma-specific immune
response and highly encouraging survival trend without serious side
effects. In patients with resected disease there is increasing
evidence to suggest that SCIB1 may delay or prevent disease
recurrence.
Scancell's ImmunoBody(R) vaccines target dendritic cells and
stimulate both parts of the cellular immune system: the helper cell
system where inflammation is stimulated at the tumour site and the
cytotoxic T-lymphocyte or CTL response where immune system cells
are primed to recognise and kill specific cells.
Pre-clinical data on a combination of SCIB1 or SCIB2 and
checkpoint inhibition (blockade of the PD-1 or CTLA-4 immune
checkpoint pathways) have shown enhanced tumour destruction and
significantly longer survival times than when either treatment was
used alone. Experimental data suggests that the high avidity T
cells induced by ImmunoBody(R) vaccines increase expression of
PDL-1 on the tumour cell surface, thereby making the tumours more
sensitive to checkpoint inhibitor drugs. Re-challenging animals
with tumour cells after SCIB1 treatment resulted in 100% survival
suggesting that ImmunoBody(R) induces a powerful memory response.
Such an effect has not been observed with checkpoint
inhibitors.
Scancell has also identified and patented a series of modified
epitopes that stimulate the production of killer CD4+ T cells that
destroy tumours without toxicity. The Directors believe that the
Moditope(R) platform could play a major role in the development of
safe and effective cancer immunotherapies in the future.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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January 30, 2017 02:01 ET (07:01 GMT)