Scancell Holdings PLC (LON:SCLP) described the 12 months to the end of April as a “busy and productive year” – one in which the building blocks for the clinical development of its two lead drugs were laid.
Alongside its prelims, the company confirmed manufacturing of its Modi-1 vaccine for solid tumours, developed from the Moditope platform, is progressing well. As a result, it expects to be able to begin clinical trials in the first half of next year.
Its lead drug, SCIB-1, developed from its ImmunoBody technology, has recently entered a phase II clinical trial here in the UK.
The study will initially assess the safety and efficacy of the treatment in 25 people with a metastatic form of skin cancer, melanoma. SCIB-1 will be used in harness with Merck’s checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda.
Scancell remains in discussions with regulators over the minutiae of a parallel clinical assessment in the US.
A £3.9mln injection from the life sciences fund Vulpes will effectively bankroll the latest R&D.
As is common with drug developers at this formative stage of their development, the group was loss-making. The deficit for the year was £5.6mln as development expenditure grew to £4.15mln.