Boston, MA 08/25/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS) announced that it would be taking up testing of experimental immuno-oncology drugas prostate cancer treatment. Advaxis said that the drug shall be tested along with a much esteemed immunotherapy from Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK).
Testing the Use of ADXS-PSA
Advaxis, Inc. is a small biotechnology company in the States and in the previous month, in second cancer collaboration, it had announced that it was ready to evaluate ADXS-PSA utilization as a sole treatment, while also studying it as a combined treatment with pembrolizumab of Merck in its Phase I and II trials.
Combination with Merck’s Drug
Pembrolizumab is the new drug of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) which belongs to the family of new medicines known as PD-1 inhibitors. This group of medicines function in a way that they block PD-1 protein, thus letting loose the immune system cells, while also pushing them to successfully take on tumours.
The drug by Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS), in turn, is composed of modified form of Listeria bacterium which is impregnated with PSA protein, which in turn is discarded by prostate tumours. This is done so that the immune system activates T-cells (used to kill cancer cells).
The two drug-makers opine that combination of both these drugs will lead to effective knocking of prostate cancer.
Statement from the Executives
In an interview with Yahoo! Finance, the Chief Executive officer of Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS), Inc., Daniel O’Connor said that the companies will pursue collaboration in case the combination of these two drugs shows positive results. Also, in the interview, O’Connor said that Advaxis shall be incurring entire cost of study, which is scheduled for early 2015. Merck shall be facilitating pembrolizumab for use in the trial.
On the other hand, David Mauro, Executive Director, Merck Oncology Department, said, “We think this combination gives us the opportunity to do early exploration in prostate cancer and bring immuno-oncology into this space.”
The combination shall also be put on trial in cervical cancer patients, apart from neck and head cancer patients.
