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news.Coley Pharmaceutical Group has received a $3 million milestone payment from GlaxoSmithKline after the UK drugs giant began a Phase III study of an immunotherapeutic cancer vaccine, containing Coley's VaxImmune vaccine adjuvant, for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.
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In June 2007, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced the launch of a randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled Phase III clinical trial in lung cancer to evaluate the MAGE-A3 Antigen-Specific Cancer Immunotherapeutic (MAGE-A3 ASCI) in patients with early stage, completely resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). VaxImmune is one of the components of MAGE-A3 ASCI, intended to increase an anti-tumor immune response. The trial, known as the MAGRIT trial (MAGE- A3 as Adjuvant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Immunotherapy) will target enrollment of about 2,270 patients with stage IB, II or IIIA resectable NSCLC. The primary endpoint of the trial is disease-free survival. The $3 million development milestone was triggered by the initiation of this Phase III trial.
VaxImmune is Coley’s proprietary TLR9 agonist designed to induce both an enhanced antibody response and a potent killer T cell immune response when used in conjunction with vaccines in order to achieve and sustain a clinical response without compromising safety. Coley has granted GSK worldwide licenses for the use of VaxImmune in GSK’s vaccines in development for certain cancers and infectious diseases.