Press
Release Nottingham, UK – 25th May 2004 – Scancell Ltd, the Nottingham, UK based cancer therapeutics company, has announced that it has secured an agreement with Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT) under which Scancell has been granted an exclusive worldwide licence to develop and commercialise two cancer vaccines against Tie-2 and CD55 protein targets for the treatment of solid tumours.
Tie-2 and CD55 offer highly promising approaches to the development of novel vaccines using Scancell's ImmunoBody™ technology. Tie-2 is over-expressed on tumour vasculature. Therapeutic vaccines targeting blood vessels can cause vascular collapse and starvation of large tumour areas. CD55 is over-expressed by tumours to protect them from immune attack. A therapeutic vaccine targeting CD55 may therefore destroy tumour cells over-expressing CD55 leaving any remaining cells susceptible to immune clearance through endogenous complement lysis. A combination of both vaccines may lead to dramatic tumour regression by harnessing the body's immune system to 'reject' the tumour.
Commenting on the agreement, Professor Lindy Durrant, CSO of Scancell, said: "We are very pleased that CRT has selected Scancell to develop and commercialise these extremely promising products. This agreement offers Scancell the opportunity to develop two new ImmunoBody™ vaccines for the treatment of solid tumours. The collaboration with CRT is a further example of how we intend to accelerate the development of the ImmunoBody™ programme through partnerships over the next few years."
Dr. Keith Blundy, Chief Operating Officer at CRT, said: "Scancell is well positioned to develop the CD55 and Tie-2 vaccines and we anticipate that this deal will enable cancer patients to benefit from this exciting technology in the future."
Scancell's ImmunoBody™ approach involves engineering a human antibody to express epitopes from tumour antigens over-expressed by commercially important solid tumours - in this case Tie-2 and CD55. ImmunoBody™ vaccines efficiently target the dendritic cells in vivo to stimulate effective immunity. They offer the potential to develop more effective vaccines against both cancer and infectious diseases.
Scancell Ltd is a company focussed on the discovery and development of products that harness the immune system in a unique way to treat or prevent cancer. Founded in 1996 as a spin-out from Nottingham University, Scancell in based in state-of-the-art facilities at the BioCity innovation and technology centre, Nottingham. The Company, which currently employs 15 individuals, has secured £3.7million of private equity and commercial funding. Scancell has four monoclonal antibody products in active development and has also developed its patent protected ImmunoBody™ technology for the discovery of improved cancer vaccines. It has already secured three major technology-validating collaborations with significant players in the sector including Celltech, the acknowledged flagship of the UK biotechnology industry, Genmab, a leading Danish antibody company and ISU, a company at the forefront of Korean biotechnology. For more information about Scancell visit www.scancell.co.uk
Cancer Research Technology Limited is a specialist technology transfer and development company which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer research for the benefit of cancer patients. CRT is wholly owned by Cancer Research UK, the largest independent funder of cancer research in the world. CRT works closely with leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protect intellectual property arising from their research and to establish links with commercial partners. CRT facilitates the discovery, development and marketing of new cancer therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and enabling technologies. For more information about Cancer Research Technology visit www.cancertechnology.co.uk
Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements, e.g. unforeseen exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations, delayed or unsuccessful development projects.
Statements that are not historical facts, including statements preceded by, followed by, or that include the words "believes"; "anticipates"; "plans"; "expects"; "estimates"; or similar statements are forward-looking statements. Scancell is not under an obligation to up-date statements regarding the future following the publication of this release; nor to confirm such statements in relation to actual results, unless this is required by law.
© Scancell Limited, 2001-2007.
