Hørsholm, Denmark, October 18, 2017 – AdaptVac announces that it has reached proof of concept in advanced animal models (POCA) for AV-001, its novel vaccine treatment against breast cancer tumours. This is a significant milestone for the Company in the progress towards clinical development. The Company will now initiate discussions with large pharmaceutical companies regarding a license or collaboration agreement for the clinical development of the project.
The scientific results that form the basis of the proof of concept in animal models show a strong therapeutic effect on par with leading treatments on the market. The data will be presented the 30th of November at the Virus-Like Particle & Nano-Particle Vaccines meeting in Singapore under the title ‘A novel VLP-display technology enables induction of protective antibody responses directed against human HER2 in a transgenic mouse model of spontaneous breast cancer’ and has also been submitted for publication in a renowned, peer-reviewed scientific journal with expected publication later in 2017.
“Being able to show a strong therapeutic effect on breast cancer tumours that rival the efficiency of existing blockbuster treatments in validated animal models is truly exciting in itself. Doing so by simple injection of a triggers the body’s own immune system, with significantly lower cost and without the need for repeated hospital visits for the patient, is nothing short of ground-breaking”, says Dr. Wian de Jongh, AdaptVac’s CEO.
The idea to use a vaccine treatment against non-infectious diseases such as cancer or allergy is not new. However, up until now it has been immensely difficult in cancer to overcome the body’s immune response and show strong therapeutic efficiency with modern so-called subunit vaccines.
By adding a virus-like structure to the substance to trigger the immune system in a specific way, AdaptVac’s technology is ideally suited for a rapid conversion of a broad range of previously inefficient subunit vaccines to very efficient treatments. The Company’s project portfolio currently consists of two lead projects: the breast cancer project, and one undisclosed infectious disease project.
“Now that we have credible experimental data that points to a major scientific and medical breakthrough in breast cancer treatment, it is time to start identifying a strong partner for the clinical development of our lead breast cancer project. We will then be able to finalise the remaining preclinical stages while at the same time broaden our portfolio”, says Dr. Adam Frederik Sander Pedersen, CSO.
Strong market potential in breast cancer
Breast cancer is a widespread oncology indication affecting more than 1.3 million worldwide annually and resulting in more than 450,000 deaths (Tao, 2015: wWw.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25543329). The most common treatment today is based on monoclonal antibodies, where the dominating therapy HERCEPTIN (trastuzumab) generates annual global sales of US$ 7 billion.
The target product profile of AdaptVac’s lead breast cancer project is tailored to be highly competitive both in terms of cost and efficacy, thus aiming at asignif icant market share.
About AdaptVac ApS
AdaptVac is a joint venture between ExpreS2ion Biotechnologies and NextGen Vaccines, combining ExpreS2ion’s platform with novel proprietary and groundbreaking Virus-Like Particle (VLP) technology, developed at the University of Copenhagen.
The Company aims to accelerate the development of highly efficient therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines within high value segments of oncology, infectious diseases and immunological disorders.
For further information about AdaptVac ApS, please contact:
Dr. Wian de Jongh, CEO
Telephone: +45 26394649
E-mail: wdj@adaptvac.com
