Vaccine to fight breast and lung cancer Stimuvax from Merck KgaA is coming

Stimuvax, an experimental therapeutic vaccine the stimulate immune cell to fight cancer from Merck KGaA of Germany, has been found  promising enough to treat several cancers including breast tumours and lung cancer.

Stimuvax is a vaccine designed to stimulate the body’s immune system to identify and target cancer cells that express MUC1, an antigen commonly expressed in breast cancer as well as in other common cancer types such as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), multiple myeloma, and colorectal, prostate and ovarian cancers.

Merck KGaA has started its global Phase III clinical study of the therapeutic cancer vaccine Stimuvax (BLP25 liposome vaccine, L-BLP25) in patients with advanced, inoperable breast cancer.

The STRIDE(a) study will determine if Stimuvax can extend progression-free survival in patients treated with hormonal therapy who have hormone receptor-positive, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic breast cancer.

STRIDE will enroll more than 900 patients with advanced breast cancer at an estimated 180 sites in over 30 countries – within North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Merck also plans to seek approval for Stimuvax for treating lung cancer in 2012 based on studies in that disease begun in 2007.

Stimuvax was the first investigational cancer vaccine to enter Phase III clinical testing in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with the February 2007 launch of the STARTb study, which involved more than 1,300 patients with unresectable stage III NSCLC, who were stable or responding after chemoradiotherapy.

Stimuvax could rake in sales upto 350 million euros by 2017,Merck estimates.

Stimuvax trials have been expanded to breast tumors comes as Merck’s only marketed cancer drug, Erbitux, was unexpectedly denied approval for use in lung malignancies in July.

Merck may still broaden the Stimuvax studies to include still more tumor types, reports quoting Merck sources said.

Merck is testing the product for use as a potential first- line treatment for women with inoperable cancer, recurring tumors or metastases.

Stimuvax is a BLP25 liposome  vaccine that belongs to a class of cancer drugs known as therapeutic vaccines which targets molecules that are unique to or found in abundance on tumor cells into the body to provoke an immune response. terapeutic vaccines attack the tumor cells without harming healthy tissue, a drawback of traditional cancer therapies.

Merck bought rights to Stimuvax from Seattle-based biotechnology company Oncothyreon Inc. in 2001.

Antigenics Inc.’s Vitespen, which was approved in Russia for kidney cancer last year is the only therapeutic cancer vaccine available in the market.

However, more therapeutic cancer vaccines are underway. Twelve of the 50 cancer therapies in late-stage clinical trials as of last year were therapeutic vaccines, according to research firm IMS Health Inc.

Provenge, a therapeutic vaccine proven to prolong prostate cancer patients’ lifespan from Dendreon Corp will be out by the middle of next year.

An experimental treatment from Tampa, Florida-based Accentia Biopharmaceuticals Inc. is another therapeutic vaccine which shows promise in treating lymphoma for more than a year among patients who achieved remission after chemotherapy, according to data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Orlando, Florida.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc began recruiting patients for a final-stage trial of its MAGE-A3 lung cancer vaccine in October 2007.

IMS estimates that sales from oncology treatments will soar to $75 billion worldwide in 2012 from $48 billion now.