$50m pledge will help Therion develop drug

By Stephen Heuser, Globe Staff | December 26, 2005

In an unusual effort by a single wealthy investor to keep a medical idea alive, a German billionaire is promising $50 million to Therion Biologics Corp., a small Cambridge company trying to develop the first-ever therapeutic vaccine for cancer. ….

ts lead product, Panvac-VF, is a series of injections designed to fight pancreatic cancer, which strikes 30,000 Americans each year and is almost always fatal.

Early tests of Panvac showed it extended the lives of patients with late-stage pancreatic cancer, and the company expects results from a larger trial on 250 patients early next year. If it shows significant benefits, the company will apply for FDA approval.

”We’re all figuratively holding our breath waiting for the results of this trial,” said Leuchtenberger.

Like shots for flu or measles, cancer vaccines are designed to train the body’s immune system to fight a specific disease.

Unlike a traditional vaccine, however, the drug being tested by Therion is not preventive. Rather, it is given to people who already have cancer, in the hopes that their immune cells can learn to recognize and attack the cancer as it tries to grow and spread in the body.

A success in the trial would let Therion enter the lucrative niche of last-chance cancer therapies, among the most expensive drugs in modern medicine.

Full story at the Boston Globe’s boston.com business section