VAXIMM Starts Clinical Study of First Oral Cancer Vaccine
VAXIMM AG, a Merck KGaA spin-off, announced the start of the first clinical trial of its investigational oral therapeutic cancer vaccine VXM01. The placebo-controlled phase I dose escalation study intends to enroll up to 45 pancreatic cancer patients at the Heidelberg University Hospital (Heidelberg, Germany). In addition to standard-of-care treatment, the patients will receive several doses of VXM01, a therapeutic cancer vaccine that targets the tumor vasculature. The results of the initial double blind period of the study are expected in the first half of 2013.
The investigational therapeutic vaccine VXM01 is designed to stimulate the patients' own immune system to destroy tumor-associated blood vessels, which are essential for tumors growth. It is the first therapeutic cancer vaccine in clinical development that does not target the cancer cells directly, but rather the tumor stroma, a structure that is required by solid tumors for their growth. VXM01 is also the first therapeutic cancer vaccine being investigated, which is given orally and which acts in the gut to induce an anti-tumor response of the immune system.
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