Prima BioMed developing oral cervical cancer vaccine

Following on from its trading halt yesterday, Prima BioMed (ASX:PRR) has announced today it is working with Ian Frazer and two Australian universities to develop an oral delivery system for vaccines for cervical cancer.

The current cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, developed by Ian Frazer and Jian Zhou, is only injectable and prevents infection by certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer.

The new vaccine will function in a similar way to Gardasil and target HPV although it will be taken orally, which is more suitable for large scale delivery.

Prima BioMed is providing investment and resources to Ian Frazer and researchers at the Diamantina Institute for Cancer at the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales to continue research and development of the oral delivery system for the vaccine.

"We're providing funding and a small amount of resources for some great research and medical innovation," said Prima BioMed Executive Director, Martin Rogers.

"The work on the basic platform science is pretty advanced and has been published, but this is the first time this has been applied to Gardasil," he said.

Rogers expects clinical trials on the vaccine to begin in around six to 12 months.

The investment in an oral cervical cancer vaccine won't impact Prima BioMed's most advanced product, CVac, an ovarian cancer treatment.

"If we do the right sort of things in terms of developing CVac and developing other things as a non-core part of our pipeline, we could be a multi-billion dollar biotech company in the future," said Rogers.