Regeneus gets US green light for cancer vaccine

Regeneus (ASX:RGS) has been given the green light to commercialise an autologous canine cancer vaccine in the US.

The US Department of Agriculture’s Center for Veterinary Biologics has written to Regeneus confirming it can proceed with commercialisation efforts.

Regeneus head of veterinary health Dr Duncan Thomson said the centre’s approval gives it an accelerated pathway to launch.

“The next step is to finalise the planning and initiate our US-based marketing study which will generate important data to support the commercialisation of the cancer vaccine. The study is scheduled to commence in early 2014.”

The vaccine technology was developed by Professor Ross Davey and Dr Chris Weir at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research’s Bill Walsh Translational Cancer Research Laboratories.

It involves creating a personalised vaccine using a tumour removed or biopsied from a dog, stimulating the animal’s immune system into recognising a tumour as foreign and attacking it.

Regeneus has an exclusive worldwide licence to the technology for veterinary applications, and an option covering all human applications.

To date, 40 dogs have been injected with the vaccine as part of an ethics-approved study, and over 80% of these have had increased survival times compared to published survival data for their type of cancer.

Regeneus conducted a $10.5 million IPO in September. The company recently expanded the reach of autologous human cell-based musculoskeletal therapy HiQCell into Melbourne.

Regeneus (ASX:RGS) shares were trading 21.43% higher at $0.34 as of around 1 pm on Thursday.