EFN

A new vaccine produced by Dendreon Corp. of Seattle seems to improve survival rates in men with otherwise untreatable metastatic prostate cancer.

Provenge (sipuleucel-T) is meant to treat men with with androgen-independent prostate cancer, and according to the pharmaceutical company, “could represent the first product in a new class of active cellular immunotherapies (ACIs)”. ACIs use live human cells to recruit the patient’s own immune system against the cancer.

Chief executive Mitchell Gold noted that “survival is the gold standard outcome for oncology clinical trials” and the successful outcome from the IMPACT study “provides validation of the long-pursued goal of harnessing the human immune system against a patient’s own cancer”.

The treatment doesn’t work like a traditional vaccine. Doctors must collect specialised cells from each patient’s blood, then mix them with a protein found on most prostate cancer cells to help activate the immune system. The resulting “vaccine” helps the immune system recognise cancer as a threat, much as it would germs that enter the body.

In term of getting the vaccine to commercialization, Gold said Provenge’s pricing hasn’t been determined but will likely be “similar to other biologics in the oncology space.” Dendreon plans to partner the drug outside the U.S. and market it directly to U.S. oncologists and urologists using a sales force of about 100 representatives.

In the earlier analyze of 127 men, those treated with the vaccine lived an average of 4 1/2 months longer than those given fake treatments. After three years, survival was 34 percent in the vaccine group and only 11 percent in the other.

More details concerning Dendreon’s commercial strategy will be discussed at an analyst day this summer, Gold said.