Possible vaccine for WM in development

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  pmanning | published 2 months ago | Originally written in English Possible vaccine for WM in development

  While one must always treat information about possible new treatments with caution, especially in the early stages, I thought you might be interested in the following, recently announced in the USA. Here are some quotes from a press release:
  
  "27 Oct 2011: Biovest ... today announced that the FDA has granted Orphan Drug Designation to BiovaxID® for the treatment of ... WM. This milestone advances Biovest’s plans to develop ... BiovaxID as an autologous active immunotherapy (personalized cancer vaccine) ....
  
  We believe WM is an ideal indication for BiovaxID to potentially provide significant clinical benefit for patients by extending remissions and potentially delaying and/or avoiding alternative treatment options such as stem cell transplant or removing the patient’s spleen. Our study data to date suggests that BiovaxID-treated patients who express a certain type of protein isotype called IgM on their lymphoma cells are much more likely to remain cancer-free longer after achieving a remission following induction therapy. Since most WM patients express this IgM isotype, we look forward to conducting future clinical trials to evaluate our vaccine’s utility in treating this rare B-cell blood cancer."
  
  this is the full press release:
  
  www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111027005...
  
  and this is another report about it (written before WM was added to the lymphomas included):
  
  www.startribune.com/business/132355733.html
  
  and another:
  
  www.startribune.com/blogs/133081333.html
  
  You may also be interested to se the following:
  
  "Biovest’s vaccine has been granted seven years of U.S. market exclusivity for WM. The exclusivity will start after Biovest receives regulatory approval from the U.S. FDA. The company said it expects to file its application for the approval next year."

  they also say: "Biovest is preparing for meetings with U.S. and international regulatory agencies to discuss the next steps required for potential approval of our personalized cancer vaccine, BiovaxID(R). Biovest has completed two Phase II clinical trials and a controlled, randomized Phase III clinical trial of BiovaxID."

  It seems a course of 5 doses over a 6 month period is envisaged. Treatment is likely to be very expensive, but it might still be cheaper than, or comparable with, repeated chemo.

  It has to be said that it is very early days in the development of this possible treatment. Even assuming it passes the necessary clinical trials and jumps the various regulatory hurdles in the USA, it is likely to be some considerable time before any such therapy is available in Europe. Nevertheless, this seems a very exciting development in the search for targeted treatment with a minimum of side effects.

  Best wishes,

  Phil
  --
  Phil Manning, Moderator
  2 replies to the topic — see all replies

  • 
    AllieFreitas published 2 months ago | Originally written in English

    Hey Phil,

    Thanks so much for posting this. What a great development for all WM patients!

    Best,
    Allie
  • 
    215- published 26 days ago | Originally written in Spanish

    Muchas gracias y muchos ánimos es su investigación, cualquier paso por pequeño que sea lo recibimos con una grandisima ilusión.