KAEL-GemVax, a leading oncology vaccine company, today announced,
through its subsidiary GemVax A.S, encouraging interim progress from the
UK-based Phase III TeloVac study of its anti-telomerase therapeutic
cancer vaccine GV1001 in pancreatic cancer. The company also strongly
believes GV1001 has major “blockbuster” potential as a universal
therapeutic cancer vaccine and is developing a strong pipeline for other
indications, including lung and liver cancer and melanoma.
The largest cancer vaccine therapy trial ever in the UK, currently
funded by Cancer Research UK, the TeloVac study is being run by the
Liverpool Cancer Trials Unit. KAEL-GemVax has just received the second
interim report noting that the number of patients recruited reached 755
out of 1110 in 52 centres in the UK in June. This means recruitment is
now almost 70% complete and remains well on schedule for LPFV in October
2011 and NDA filing soon after. A recent Datamonitor report forecasted
the market for therapeutic cancer vaccines to reach $4.7 billion by 2018
in 7 major markets.
Director of the LCTU, Professor John Neoptolemos commented: “GV1001 is
the most advanced therapeutic cancer vaccine currently in development
and we are extremely pleased with the progress of trials so far. Patient
recruitment across our centres continues and we are seeing some good
immunological responses.”
The primary trial objective is length of survival. The TeloVac study was
initiated in 2007 after the Phase I/II study showed overall survival of
8.6 months, compared to the 5.6 months of current standard treatment
Gemcitabine. It is a prospective, controlled, multicentre, randomised
clinical trial comparing combination Gemcitabine and Capecitabine
therapy with concurrent and sequential chemoimmunotherapy using a
telomerase vaccine in locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer.
KAEL-GemVax CEO Dr Jay Sangjae Kim added: “These results from the
independent Data Monitoring Committee on the TeloVac trial in the UK are
extremely encouraging. Currently pancreatic cancer is one of the most
difficult cancers to treat and there are only a few approved treatments
on the market. However, we believe that the improved overall survival
and favourable safety profile that GVI001 has shown in previous studies
creates a strong rationale for providing it with standard care, and thus
creating the first therapeutic vaccine for patients with pancreatic
cancer. In addition, we strongly believe that GV1001 has the potential
to overcome the limits of other current cancer vaccines and become part
of the standard of care not only for pancreatic cancer but for various
other types of cancers. In other words a truly “universal” vaccine will
be available in the near future.”
Corporate Inquiries
KAEL-GemVax
Yena Chung,
Global PR Manager
Tel: +82-2 540 6221
Email: yenachung@kaelgemvax.com
or
Media
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