VIR501 : Therapeutic Prostate Cancer Vaccine
VIR501: Therapeutic Prostate Cancer Vaccine
Background
The immune based therapy approach for treating cancer is a relatively new addition to the group of cancer treatments that includes surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and radiation therapy. Immunotherapies attempt to use the body's immune system to directly or indirectly fight cancer or lessen the side effects from cancer treatments. Some cancers may develop when the immune system breaks down or is not functioning adequately. Immune based therapies attempt to repair, stimulate, enhance or regulate the body's immune responses.
The Potential Market for Prostate Cancer Treatments
Current prostate cancer treatments can have severe side effects. Common treatments for localized prostate cancer are surgical removal of the prostate or radiation treatment. For locally advanced or metastatic cancer, hormone ablation therapy is a common treatment; this involves impeding cancer cell proliferation by delaying the hormones necessary for their growth. Unfortunately this is not a long term solution as the cancer normally becomes independent and growth resumes. There are very few treatment options for patients with advanced, hormone refractory prostate cancer; "refractory" means that patients have developed resistance to treatment. Thus, the most important unmet need in the management of prostate cancer is treatment that is effective against hormone-refractory, metastatic disease. Demand for safer, more effective treatments is increasing as the world-wide population ages
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Prostate Cancer Facts
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Global statistics1
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- Prostate cancer is among the most prevalent cancers in the seven major pharmaceutical markets (U.S., France, Germany, Spain, UK, and Japan) and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men
- The incidence of prostate cancer is increasing at a pace of 1.9% per year
- In 1999, the market for agents to treat prostate cancer totalled $US41.3 billion
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Australian statistics2
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- After some types of skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men in Australia
- The lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer is one in eleven up until the age of 74. The risk increases dramatically from 75 onwards.
- In 1997 9,725 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in Australia and 2,449 Australian men died from this disease.
- In 1999 prostate cancer accounted for 13% of all male cancer deaths3
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US statistics4
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- Prostate is the most common type of cancer in American men other than skin cancer
- The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be approximately 198,000 new cases of prostate cancer in the US in 2001. Approximately 31, 500 will die from the disease
- The incidence of prostate cancer increases with age; thus, in an aging population, prostate cancer is found most often in men over the age of 50
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References
1. Pharmacor
2. Australian Institute of Health & Welfare report "Cancer in Australia 1997"
3. Australian Bureau of Statistics
4. The American Cancer Society, 2001
Prostate Development Program Overview
Virax's anti-cancer program is focused on the development of an adjunct therapy for advanced stage prostate cancer using an immunotherapeutic approach. The drug candidate to be developed will utilise Virax's Co-X-GeneTM technology.
Virax's candidate therapeutic vaccine selected to treat hormone refractory prostate cancer is known as VIR501. VIR501 was selected based upon extensive pre-clinical animal studies which were performed by Dr Michael Brown (Royal Adelaide Hospital). VIR501, which is a FPV vector expressing a tumour (cancer) specific antigen called prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) and IL-2. The status of the project is the GMP seed lots of VIR501 have been manufactured. Further development of VIR501 will commence upon receipt of additional funding.