Pfizer and Merck KGaA are the newest bladder cancer drugmakers in townThe announcement came the same day that Pfizer and Merck KGaA won a U.S. FDA nod in bladder cancer with Bavencio. European biotech Vaximm has partnered with much bigger drug companies Merck KGaA and Pfizer to test whether its oral cancer vaccine can benefit patients with glioblastoma or colorectal cancer when combined with the pharma companies' checkpoint inhibitor Bavencio. The New York pharma also has an internal cancer vaccine platform under development. Back in 2014, Pfizer and Merck KGaA joined together in a checkpoint inhibitor effort worth up to $2.8 billion, including $850 million up front. The Vaximm collaboration won't be Pfizer's first cancer vaccine play.
The biotech magnate has taken to Twitter to refute those claims and talk up the prospects for the NANT Cancer Vaccine. The U.S. regulator has just granted approval to Soon-Shiong's immuno-oncology companies NantKwest and NantCell to start recruiting patients into the first clinical trial of a cell-based immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer. The NANT Cancer Vaccine is billed as the first combination of off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cells and a "molecularly informed tumor associated antigen vaccine," given along with low-dose radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The pancreatic cancer trial is the a key step forward for the Moonshot 2020 program, he said, adding that NantKwest and NantCell are actively working to initiate the clinical trial across investigational centers. The phase 1b/2 clinical trial will test the immunotherapy in around 80 people with pancreatic cancer whose disease has progressed despite first-line standard-of-care therapy, and is due to complete before the end of next year.
collected by :Lucy William