Trovax vaccine is designed to deliver a proprietary tumor associated antigen, 5T4, to a broad range of solid tumors. The vaccine is designed to use a pox virus vector, modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA).

In today’s deal, Sanofi-Aventis agrees to pay British biotech company Oxford BioMedica $690 million licensing fees for TroVax. Sanofi pays $39 million up front and $25 million installments. Sanofi will pay more if Trovax is approved to treat multiple cancers.

“Worldwide cancer vaccine revenues,” Oxford BioMedica says on its website, “are estimated to reach approximately US$6 billion by 2010 (Arrowhead). The market for all cancer therapies is currently estimated to be approximately over US$3 billion for colorectal cancer, US$600 million for renal cell carcinoma, US$3 billion for prostate cancer and US$6 billion for breast cancer (Datamonitor).”

“Over 150 patients have now been treated with collectively over 500 doses of TroVax in multiple clinical trials. TroVax has been safe and well tolerated. There have been no serious adverse events related to the product. TroVax has induced an anti-tumour immune response to the 5T4 tumour antigen in over 95% of evaluable patients. The strongest immune responders have also tended to show the greatest clinical benefit.

Dendreon’s Provenge (as Fiercebitech notes) is “the most advanced cancer vaccine in development.” Provenge is designed to target PAP (prostatic acid phosphatasee), an enzyme highly expressed on prostate tumors. “Our findings confirm that the PAP antigen is an ideal target to be pursuing in prostate cancer,” says David L. Urdal, president and chief scientific officer of Dendreon. “We hold a strong patent position on the use of the PAP antigen in our Provenge therapy and our clinical trial results have shown that Provenge triggers active T-cell immunity against PAP.”

TroVax, by contrast, aims to stimulate immune response in a range of cancer including prostate cancer and colon cancer.

FierceBiotech reported today: “One British analyst estimated that the deal could be worth more than a billion dollars altogether, which makes it potentially the largest licensing deal signed by a British drug developer. The pact marks big pharma’s interest in cancer vaccines, which look to boost a patient’s immune system to eradicate cancer cells.”

Links:
Recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara expressing the spike glycoprotein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus induces protective neutralizing antibodies primarily targeting the receptor binding region.

Vol. 1, 1129-1137, October 2002 Molecular Cancer Therapeutics
Attenuated Recombinant Vaccinia Virus Expressing Oncofetal Antigen (Tumor-associated Antigen) 5T4 Induces Active Therapy of Established Tumors
Kate Mulryan, Matthew G. Ryan, Kevin A. Myers, David Shaw, Who Wang, Susan M. Kingsman, Peter L. Stern1 and Miles W. Carroll1

Cancer Research United Kingdom Immunology Group, Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, Christie Hospital, Manchester, M20 9BX [K. M., D. S., W. W., P. L. S.], and Oxford Biomedica (United Kingdom) Ltd., Medawar Centre, Oxford Science Park, Oxford, OX4 4GA [M. G. R., K. A. M., S. M. K., M. W. C.], United Kingdom