ImmunoCellular Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing immune-based therapies for the treatment of various cancers. The company recently completed phase I trials for its lead product candidate ICT-107, and today announced that it has developed an innovative means to manufacture the dendritic cell-based vaccine for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a common type of brain tumor.
ImmunoCellular co-developed the method with the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility at the University of Pennsylvania.
The method is a closed-bag system designed to produce highly potent dendritic cells from white blood cells collected from patients to use in the patient’s future vaccine treatments. Various testing demonstrates that the process may be used to numerous doses of ICT-107 vaccine from a single blood collection.
“The validated method we have optimized for producing 20 or more doses of dendritic cell-based vaccine from a single blood collection presents significant cost and convenience advantages over current manufacturing methods, as patients should be able to be treated for several years from a single manufacturing run,” Manish Singh, Ph.D., president and CEO of ImmunoCellular stated in the press release. “For example, Provenge®—another dendritic cell-based vaccine approved for prostate cancer—is manufactured one dose at a time, contributing to its very expensive treatment cost.”
The company said it will continue to analyze the cost savings of per-dose manufacturing as it prepares to initiate a phase II study of ICT-107 in the fourth quarter.
For more information visit www.imuc.com