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Scancell up 7% after lung cancer announcement

Last updated: 16:05 10 Oct 2016 BST, First published: 07:28 10 Oct 2016 BST

Lung-Cancer
Lung cancer affects hundreds of thousands of people every year and is often terminal.

Scancell Holdings Plc (LON:SCLP) shares rose 6% after it said it is deploying a drug candidate that uses the body’s immune system to fight disease in the battle against lung cancer.

The AIM-listed researcher’s discovery, called SCIB2, will be used in a phase I/II clinical to help patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

With the aim of heightening its efficacy, SCIB2 will be given with a new breed of cancer treatment called a checkpoint inhibitor.

In fact a peer-reviewed article in the journal OncoImmunology confirmed the potent anti-tumour activity of the immuno-oncology drug was further enhanced by what’s called a checkpoint blockade.

Planning for the SCIB2 clinical study is currently underway.

The drug is the second to roll off the ImmunoBody platform, which also spawned SCIB1, which has thus far been successful tackling a hard to treat form of the skin cancer melanoma.

Impressive results

In fact SCIB1’s clinical trial was extended several years beyond the original completion date due to the “unexpectedly long survival times”.

Chief executive Richard Goodfellow said: “The data we have generated to date with the SCIB2 ImmunoBody suggest that it should be well tolerated and be an ideal complement to existing and emerging portfolios of checkpoint inhibitor therapies in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.”

Lung cancer accounts for over a quarter of cancer deaths – more than more than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined. Yet is among the hardest strains of the disease to treat.

In the US around 230,000 people annually are diagnosed with this particularly pernicious form of the illness and almost 70% go on to die.

Panmure Gordon bullish

At 4pm, the shares were changing hands for 17.08p each for a rise of 1.08p.

Panmure Gordon’s Dr Mike Mitchell reckons the stock is worth 68p.

In a note to clients he said: “In extending the clinical application from melanoma to lung cancer, we consider this highlights the potential of ImmunoBody platform technology to target a broad range of cancers.”

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