Clinical study initiated on personalized vaccine for brain cancer
Biopharmaceutical firm BCN Peptides and the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona are representing Spain in a consortium of fourteen European and US organizations.
By Biocat
A consortium of 14 companies, universities and hospitals from Europe and the United States, including BCN Peptides and the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, will carry out a clinical study starting in 2014 to develop and prove the efficacy of a personalized treatment tailored to each patient for glioblastoma, a common and aggressive form of brain cancer with a poor prognosis. Treatments currently available for this type of cancer (surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy) have minimal effects on long-term patient survival rates.
The project is called GAPVAC (Glioma Actively Personalized Vaccine Consortium) and has a budget of €6 millions funded through the European Commission’s 7th Framework Program. The therapeutic innovation this initiative will contribute is in the development of APVAC vaccines (Actively Personalized Vaccines) designed and personalized based on the specific characteristics of each patient’s glioblastoma. Each vaccine aims to activate the patient’s immune system to attack the tumor, halt its progression and significantly increase life expectancy.
The consortium is led by German companies Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH and BionNTech AG, which specialize in biomarkers to fight cancer. Catalan biotechnology firm BCN Peptides will synthesize peptides for clinical use and advise on the analysis and regulation of peptide-related issues. BCN Peptides, which is based in Sant Quintí de Mediona, is one of the few peptide companies in the world and is authorized to sell in Europe (GMP) and the United States (FDA).
And to apply APVAC in patients and contribute their own research to the project, in addition to the Vall d'Hebron Hospital —which has an integral neurooncology program for adults and children— other participants will be the hospitals of Geneva (Switzerland), Heidelberg (Germany) and Herlev (Denmark) and the universities of Tubingen (Germany), Leiden (Netherlands), Southampton (United Kingdom) and Pittsburgh (USA), as well as the Beatson Cancer Center (Scotland) and the Technion Institute of Technology (Israel).
The composition of personalized on-demand vaccines will be supervised by professor Hans-Georg Rammensee if the University of Tubingen.
The clinical trials will go hand-in-hand with a wide-reaching biomarker program headed up by the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT), a non-profit organization devoted to promoting cancer vaccines, which will also act as a dissemination platform.
More information is available on the BCN Peptides and Vall d'Hebron Hospital websites.