Prima meets cancer milestones

Drug development company Prima Biomed (ASX: PRR) has told the market its first year research programs into cancer immunotherapy and anti-inflammatory treatments had met or exceeded their milestones.

Chief executive officer Marcus Clark said the results so far of the programs of Prima subsidiaries Cancer Vac and Arthron represented a major achievement for the company and its scientists.

And he said the company was currently in discussion with a number of groups over potential licensing and commercialisation agreements.

Clark said expectations for the next 12 months were high.

"Scientific milestones have been reached, in some cases ahead of expectation, and in-line with budget," he said.

"In addition the company remains on track to have commercial arrangements with respect to the projects in place within the timeframes originally set."

Melbourne-based Prima holds first and last rights over technologies emanating from the Austin Research Institute (ARI) and has a policy of taking on projects that show potential for commercial returns within three years.

Following on from the release of successful interim results in May, the company today announced Cancer Vac's immunotherapy trial had shown "the most compelling tumour specific immune responses reported in the last 12 months".

It reported that all patients had produced a strong immune response to their tumours after receiving an ex vivo stimulant.

The company's approach, developed at the ARI over the past decade, involves extracting patients' blood cells and manipulating the immune cells before reinjecting them into the patient.

The technique is intended to help the body recognise cancer cells as foreign, leading to attack.

Prima has now decided that before starting Phase II trials pegged for later this year, it would admit an extra four patients to the current trial and allow up to four existing patients remain on the treatment.

"This will allow us to gain more information much earlier on in the clinical picture, which in turn will provide valuable input towards the scope and design of the pending Phase II clinical trial," Clark said.

"We have also gained further knowledge on how to streamline the ex vivo process and this will be tested in these patients. "

In other cancer developments, the company also reported its DCtag technology was expected to soon deliver results from a large animal trial and that it anticipated a UK collaboration, which could provide early licensing opportunities.

It said an anti-cancer therapeutic monoclonal antibody had commenced tissue distribution studies to satisfy FDA guidelines, adding that Prima was in well-advanced discussions with companies to humanise the antibody.

"We plan to enter into collaboration with one of these companies for co-development of the therapeutic antibody before the end of this year," Clark said.

In the area of rheumatoid arthritis, Prima said its Arthron program to design orally active molecules had also shown successes.

It said a range of compounds had been produced to inhibit the development of the disease, with interest in the project being expressed by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the US.

The update enthused the market, which at the time of writing had added more than 10 per cent to the stock to trade at 48 cents.