Oxford Bio boosted by trials update

1st Jun 2009 15:19

Shares in gene therapy company Oxford Biomedica surged after it presented updated analyses of its trials of its TroVax drug on colorectal and renal cancer to the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). In all trials TroVax was well tolerated and there were no serious bad side effects. In the phase 1/II and II cross-trial analysis in colorectal cancer, 88% and 95% of patients showed positive responses for the 5T4 tumour antigen and the vector system, Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA), respectively.In the renal cancer trials, 89% of patients evaluated mounted %T4-specific antibody responses. Two patients showed a complete response for more than 36 months and two others had a partial response for more than 24 and 12 months respectively. 'It is interesting to note that an association between the magnitude of the antibody response to the 5T4 tumour antigen and enhanced patient survival is detected as early as post-second vaccination in colorectal cancer. While care must be taken when considering results from post-hoc analyses, the detection of an association with 5T4, but not MVA, antibody responses across multiple trials is encouraging,' said Oxford Biomedica's chief scientific officer, Dr. Stuart Naylor.