Prima to trial CVac in three more cancer types

Prima BioMed (ASX:PRR) plans to move forward with phase II trials of cancer vaccine candidate CVac in three different cancer types.

The company has announced an intention to proceed with three clinical trials in resectable pancreatic cancer, metastatic colorectal cancer and triple-negative breast cancer.

Prima BioMed is already engaged in late-stage trials for CVac in epithelial ovarian cancer, including its major CANVAS trial, which is being conducted across 22 countries. The first patient for the CANVAS study was enrolled in February 2012.

“Expanding the CVac clinical program with these new phase II trials is a significant development for Prima,” CEO Matthew Lehman said. “Successful trials in these indications would be of benefit to patients and would enhance the commercial attractiveness of CVac.”

Lehman was appointed CEO around a year ago and one of his first orders of business was narrowing the company’s focus onto CVac development.

The new trials will be co-funded by Prima as well as the Saxony Development Bank, via a €3.8 million ($5.39 million) grant.

Each trial will involve a randomised comparison of CVac in combination with standard of care compared with standard of care alone. All patients will have undergone standard first-line treatment for their cancer type prior to participating.

Prima BioMed shares were trading 7.69% lower at $0.072 as of around 1 pm on Tuesday.