Alliance to Develop Breast Cancer Vaccine

A collaboration to develop a new breast cancer vaccine has been announced by Bavarian Nordic A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark;) and Pharmexa A/S (Horsholm, Denmark).

The companies will combine Bavarian Nordic's MV-BN vector technology with Pharmexa's HER-2 DNA AutoVac vaccine. In a clinical trial with 27 breast cancer patients, Pharmexa's vaccine was found safe and induced a T-cell-based immune response in patients. This vaccine will be reformulated in Bavarian Nordic's MVA-BN vector. By using this vector as a delivery mechanism, the companies hope to provoke an even stronger immune response.

In yet another approach to evoke a stronger immune response, dendritic cells will be removed from a breast cancer patient, stimulated with HER-2 AutoVac MVA-BN and then reinjected into the patient. The companies expect that clinical trials can begin relatively quickly for both procedures.

"The MVA-BN vector is the safest and most thoroughly tested virus vector in the market,” said Peter Wulff, president and CEO of Bavarian Nordic. "In earlier clinical trials with the MVA-BN vector, it has been confirmed that MVA-BN has an ability to generate a strong immune response in patients with malignant melanoma.”





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Bavarian Nordic
Pharmexa