Scancell agrees collaboration with US counterpart in cancer vaccines

Collaboration

Nottingham University spin-out, Scancell Holdings Plc, a specialist in therapeutic cancer vaccines, has announced a strategic collaboration with ImmuneRegen BioSciences under which the two will work together to investigate the synergy between ImmuneRegen’s Homspera and Scancell’s ImmunoBody vaccine technologies.

SCIB1, Scancell’s first vaccine based on the ImmunoBody technology, is ready for Phase I trials in the treatment of melanoma.  The ImmunoBody technology targets dendritic cells, leading to a significant enhancement of the immune response. In the case of SCIB1, this enhanced immune response is directed against the melanoma-related protein Tyrosinase-Related Protein 2 (TRP2). This is expected to lead to the inhibition and regression of both primary and metastatic melanoma tumour growth.  

Meanwhile, ImmuneRegen’s Homspera has been found to improve the efficacy of a TRP2 cancer vaccine in mice, resulting in persistent and specific immune responses associated with inhibition of melanoma tumour growth.

Hal Siegel, ImmuneRegen’s Chief Scientific Officer, said, “As ImmuneRegen and Scancell move towards the clinic independently, we feel this is the ideal time to collaborate on this project, with the goal of evaluating the combination of Scancell’s dendritic cell targeting technology as applied to these melanoma antigens and ImmuneRegen’s Homspera, which has shown dendritic cell immunostimulatory activity via dendritic cell responses to TRP2 directed against melanoma tumours.

“Ideally, we could be creating a combined product that represents the ‘next generation’ of cancer vaccine technology.”