<span id="midArticle_start"/><span id="midArticle_0"/> Bavarian Nordic is hot property after striking two big vaccine deals but the small Danish company is not for sale, despite a wave of consolidation in the healthcare industry, its chief told Reuters.
<span id="midArticle_1"/> Best known before for selling smallpox vaccine to governments worried about biosecurity, Bavarian's share price has tripled after signing deals with Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb that take it deep into Ebola treatment and, more importantly, cancer.
<span id="midArticle_2"/> The same understanding of the immune system that leads to vaccines for infectious diseases can also be deployed to help fight tumors.
<span id="midArticle_3"/> Boosting the immune system is now a top priority for cancer drug companies such as Bristol-Myers, Merck, Roche and AstraZeneca, fuelling renewed interest in Bavarian's therapeutic cancer vaccine work.
<span id="midArticle_4"/> Although the Danish firm has long researched the field on its own, its progress has so far been slow.
<span id="midArticle_5"/> Citi analyst Ramaswamy Narayanan noted a shift in the company's fortunes after new management was installed in the company, including Paul Chaplin as chief executive.
<span id="midArticle_6"/> "The new management has basically been more active in externalization of its assets rather than keeping everything close to its chest," Narayanan said.
<span id="midArticle_7"/> This included a $1 billion deal with Bristol-Myers for its prostate cancer vaccine Prostvac, undergoing final trials for U.S. approval, as well as a tie-up with a Johnson & Johnson unit for a vaccine against Ebola -- an opportunistic deal while the epidemic raged in West Africa..
<span id="midArticle_8"/> Having turned the corner, however, Chaplin says Bavarian wants to continue with its path rather than join in the consolidation in the healthcare sector, which has seen a record $240 billion of deals so far this year, up 68 percent on the year-ago period, according to Thomson Reuters data.
<span id="midArticle_9"/> "You can't stop interest if there is interest, but it's not our ambition to sell the company. Our end goal is not to sell to big pharma as a success," Chaplin said. "If that (success) leads to a takeover, it leads to a takeover but that's not our goal."
<span id="midArticle_10"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/><span id="midArticle_11"/> FROM TERMINAL TO CHRONIC
<span id="midArticle_12"/> Cancer vaccines are not a new concept; the idea that a drug can stimulate the immune system to fight tumors has been around for decades but, as Chaplin notes, this field was "graveyard of failures".
<span id="midArticle_13"/> Today, there are new hopes for such vaccines, thanks to the potential to combine them with so-called checkpoint inhibitor drugs. While vaccine stimulates a response, the inhibitors ensure it continues.
<span id="midArticle_14"/> Checkpoint inhibitors can be used alone against tumors because, for reasons not yet understood, around 20-40 percent of patients mount an attack naturally on a tumor. In this case, the inhibitor ensures a process naturally begun continues.
<span id="midArticle_15"/> But the majority of patients do not initiate that process, which is where vaccines come in.
<span id="midArticle_0"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/> "We're actually talking about curing cancer," Chaplin says of the combination of vaccines with inhibitors.
<span id="midArticle_1"/> A U.S. National Cancer Institute study combining Bavarian's Prostvac vaccine has produced impressive results, with a fifth of patients alive after 80 months.
<span id="midArticle_2"/> "Checkpoint inhibitors are revolutionary -- they will change the way cancers will be treated in the developed world," Citi's Narayanan said. "But it doesn't benefit everybody."
<span id="midArticle_3"/> "There's evidence now that a new generation of vaccines are responding. The clinical data seems to be quite remarkable and Prostvac is one the promising vaccines," he said.
<span id="midArticle_4"/> Citi reckons the progress in immunotherapy -- which includes vaccines and inhibitors -- could create a $35 billion market annually, turning cancer into a chronic, rather than terminal, disease.
<span id="midArticle_5"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/><span id="midArticle_6"/> LUNG CANCER
<span id="midArticle_7"/> Bavarian Nordic's next big hope is called CV-301 which will be tested on three different types of cancer, lung being first, together with an all-important checkpoint inhibitor.
<span id="midArticle_8"/> "The exciting potential about this vaccine is that we could potentially use it to treat nearly every solid tumor you can imagine," Chaplin said, who has been with the company for most of its 20-year history.
<span id="midArticle_9"/> However, Bavarian is not rushing to sign a deal for CV-301 as it did with Prostvac.
<span id="midArticle_10"/> "For us, we would like to keep that asset free from strings, so that if we do demonstrate its efficacy in three (cancer) indications, we have the freedom to license to whomever we want," said Chaplin.
<span id="midArticle_11"/> A mid-stage Phase II trial for CV-301 with inhibitors will begin next year.
<span id="midArticle_12"/>
<span id="midArticle_13"/>
<span id="midArticle_14"/> (Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki; editing by Ben Hirschler and Giles Elgood)
<span id="midArticle_15"/>
<span id="midArticle_1"/> Best known before for selling smallpox vaccine to governments worried about biosecurity, Bavarian's share price has tripled after signing deals with Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb that take it deep into Ebola treatment and, more importantly, cancer.
<span id="midArticle_2"/> The same understanding of the immune system that leads to vaccines for infectious diseases can also be deployed to help fight tumors.
<span id="midArticle_3"/> Boosting the immune system is now a top priority for cancer drug companies such as Bristol-Myers, Merck, Roche and AstraZeneca, fuelling renewed interest in Bavarian's therapeutic cancer vaccine work.
<span id="midArticle_4"/> Although the Danish firm has long researched the field on its own, its progress has so far been slow.
<span id="midArticle_5"/> Citi analyst Ramaswamy Narayanan noted a shift in the company's fortunes after new management was installed in the company, including Paul Chaplin as chief executive.
<span id="midArticle_6"/> "The new management has basically been more active in externalization of its assets rather than keeping everything close to its chest," Narayanan said.
<span id="midArticle_7"/> This included a $1 billion deal with Bristol-Myers for its prostate cancer vaccine Prostvac, undergoing final trials for U.S. approval, as well as a tie-up with a Johnson & Johnson unit for a vaccine against Ebola -- an opportunistic deal while the epidemic raged in West Africa..
<span id="midArticle_8"/> Having turned the corner, however, Chaplin says Bavarian wants to continue with its path rather than join in the consolidation in the healthcare sector, which has seen a record $240 billion of deals so far this year, up 68 percent on the year-ago period, according to Thomson Reuters data.
<span id="midArticle_9"/> "You can't stop interest if there is interest, but it's not our ambition to sell the company. Our end goal is not to sell to big pharma as a success," Chaplin said. "If that (success) leads to a takeover, it leads to a takeover but that's not our goal."
<span id="midArticle_10"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/><span id="midArticle_11"/> FROM TERMINAL TO CHRONIC
<span id="midArticle_12"/> Cancer vaccines are not a new concept; the idea that a drug can stimulate the immune system to fight tumors has been around for decades but, as Chaplin notes, this field was "graveyard of failures".
<span id="midArticle_13"/> Today, there are new hopes for such vaccines, thanks to the potential to combine them with so-called checkpoint inhibitor drugs. While vaccine stimulates a response, the inhibitors ensure it continues.
<span id="midArticle_14"/> Checkpoint inhibitors can be used alone against tumors because, for reasons not yet understood, around 20-40 percent of patients mount an attack naturally on a tumor. In this case, the inhibitor ensures a process naturally begun continues.
<span id="midArticle_15"/> But the majority of patients do not initiate that process, which is where vaccines come in.
<span id="midArticle_0"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/> "We're actually talking about curing cancer," Chaplin says of the combination of vaccines with inhibitors.
<span id="midArticle_1"/> A U.S. National Cancer Institute study combining Bavarian's Prostvac vaccine has produced impressive results, with a fifth of patients alive after 80 months.
<span id="midArticle_2"/> "Checkpoint inhibitors are revolutionary -- they will change the way cancers will be treated in the developed world," Citi's Narayanan said. "But it doesn't benefit everybody."
<span id="midArticle_3"/> "There's evidence now that a new generation of vaccines are responding. The clinical data seems to be quite remarkable and Prostvac is one the promising vaccines," he said.
<span id="midArticle_4"/> Citi reckons the progress in immunotherapy -- which includes vaccines and inhibitors -- could create a $35 billion market annually, turning cancer into a chronic, rather than terminal, disease.
<span id="midArticle_5"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/><span id="midArticle_6"/> LUNG CANCER
<span id="midArticle_7"/> Bavarian Nordic's next big hope is called CV-301 which will be tested on three different types of cancer, lung being first, together with an all-important checkpoint inhibitor.
<span id="midArticle_8"/> "The exciting potential about this vaccine is that we could potentially use it to treat nearly every solid tumor you can imagine," Chaplin said, who has been with the company for most of its 20-year history.
<span id="midArticle_9"/> However, Bavarian is not rushing to sign a deal for CV-301 as it did with Prostvac.
<span id="midArticle_10"/> "For us, we would like to keep that asset free from strings, so that if we do demonstrate its efficacy in three (cancer) indications, we have the freedom to license to whomever we want," said Chaplin.
<span id="midArticle_11"/> A mid-stage Phase II trial for CV-301 with inhibitors will begin next year.
<span id="midArticle_12"/>
<span id="midArticle_13"/>
<span id="midArticle_14"/> (Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki; editing by Ben Hirschler and Giles Elgood)
<span id="midArticle_15"/>
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