Sep. 4, 2007

Thanks to Speakers and Attendees of the 52^nd SoCalBio Networking Forum on Aug 30 at USC

Cancer vaccines hold great promise for providing cancer therapies that are non-toxic, less-invasive, and longer-lasting than current treatments. But delivering on this promise has posed one of the greatest challenges facing the life sciences. This challenge has been embraced by the biotechnology industry and, as a result, there are now several cancer vaccines under development by companies such as Genitope Corp (MyVax), Onyvax (Onyvax-P), Antigenics (Oncophage), Geron Corp. (GRNVAC1), Favrille Inc (FavId), Dendreon Corp (Provenge), Cell Genesys (GVAX), Advaxis, Inc (Lovaxin C), GeneMax Corp (AdhTAP) and Apthera (NeuVax).

Notwithstanding some high-profile failures in trials, e.g., CancerVax's melanoma vaccine, the opportunities afforded by this technology space continue to lure new entrants such as the Los Angeles-based ImmunoCellular Therapeutics. This company seeks to develop vaccines against malignancies including brain tumors.

During the 52nd SoCalBio Networking Forum, company co-founder, Dr John Yu

of Cedars Sinai provided an overview of the state of cancer vaccine development and highlighted its approach in targeting brain tumors by using dendritic cells to stimulate the body's immune response.

Panelists -- from left to right in bottom photo: Jay Sharma, Celprogen (San Pedro); Adrian Bot, M.D., Ph.D., MannKind Corp. (Valencia); Aya Jakobovits, Ph.D., Agensys Corp. (Santa Monica); and John Yu, M.D., Cedars Sinai and ImmunoCellular Therapeutics (Los Angels) -- acknowledged the hurdles of vaccine development and impact of high profile trial failures, as in the case of CancerVax, on attenuating investors' interest in this technology space. Yet, it was argued that cancer vaccine development might be at a stage now comparable to that of therapeutic MAbs in the early '90s. Panelists contended that numerous scientific advances in areas such as stem cell research and molecular imaging coupled with a better understanding of tumors' immune signatures might soon lead to development breakthroughs and open the cancer vaccine floodgate .

Next Business Mixer
October 10, 7 - 9:30 am
UCI University Club (Irvine)

The SoCalBio Networking Forums and Breakfast in OC series bring together leaders from all segments of the life-science industry to share insights and learn about:

Innovation best practices
Device and biotech business trends
Technology convergence opportunities, and
Broad-reaching public policies shaping the commercialization of innovations and healthcare service delivery in the U.S. and abroad.

Click here for examples of past forums

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