Cobra signs cancer vaccine production deal

Cobra Biomanufacturing of the UK has signed an agreement to supply the USA's Advaxis with clinical and commercial supplies of the active ingredient for its Listeria monocytogenes​-based cancer vaccine.

This is Advaxis' leading product and it is due to start clinical trials as a cervical cancer treatment within the next 12 months, following encouraging preclinical studies which suggest that a weakened version of L monocytogenes​ can induce the body's immune system to mount an anticancer response.

J Todd Derbin, Advaxis' chief executive, said: "It is very important to Advaxis to be working with a CMO that manufactures to US and European regulatory standards, and offers us multiple options in the planning of future clinical trials in a range of indications."​

Cobra​, a specialist in the manufacture of DNA, viruses and proteins, is already using its expertise for the production of L monocytogenes​ for the preclinical studies being undertaken by Advaxis. This production will increase significantly as the cancer vaccine moves into the clinic - with Phase I trials anticipated to last 12 months.

There is currently believed to be a shortfall in production capacity in the biopharmaceutical sector, resulting from a lack of investment in this area during the 1990s. This in turn resulted from an overcapacity at the beginning of the decade, when first-generation monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics failed to live up to their early promise and left companies with 'white elephant' manufacturing plants.