Pharma and Cancer: the latest developments
As October is Breast Cancer Awareness month EPM has put together a list of medical developments and partnerships in the pharmaceutical sector that are helping to treat cancer
BioNTech’s breast cancer diagnostic test
BioNTech has launched MammaTyper, a CE-IVD marked molecular diagnostic test to stratify breast cancer patients by molecular subtyping of routine tumour tissue.
The MammaTyper was developed in collaboration with Stratifyer, a molecular diagnostics company, is a molecular in vitro diagnostic test.
The test can be used on all female patients with newly diagnosed invasive breast cancer and is now available in Europe.
Siemens and BioNTech’s personalised cancer vaccines
Siemens and BioNTech produce a fully automated and digitalised production site, providing capacity for BioNTech’s personalised cancer vaccines to serve worldwide markets.
The IVAC MUTANOME immunotherapy approach is based on targeting the unique mutation signature of an individual patient’s tumour.
It is engineered on demand and administered as an individual treatment. IVAC MUTANOME is currently in a Phase I/IIa clinical trial for the treatment of malignant melanoma.
A vaccine that attacks cancer tumours
A minimally invasive vaccine that combines cancer cells and immune-enhancing factors promises to “launch a destructive attack” on tumours
Research by Wyss Institue and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute leverages a biologically inspired sponge-like gel called "cryogel" as an injectable biomaterial, the vaccine delivers patient-specific tumour cells together with immune-stimulating biomolecules to enhance the body’s attack against cancer.
BioNTech and Genmab announce cancer immunotherapy partnership
BioNTech AG and Genmab have signed an agreement to jointly research, develop and commercialise multiple bispecific antibodies for cancer immunotherapy.
The joint approach will use proprietary technologies to develop immunomodulatory antibodies, which activate the immune system against cancer.
The aim of the collaboration is to generate and select one or more bispecific antibody product candidates for clinical development and commercialisation by the two parties.
Starving cells of glucose could help cure cancer
Scientists have identified that glucose fuels the growth of cancer. The particular protein in glucose that fuels this growth is PARP 14.
Scientists from Brunel University London hope to create a drug which inhibits PARP 14, starves the cancerous cells and, in the future, can be used to cure cancer