Apr. 9, 2011 (Baystreet.ca) --
A little known and young biotech company, Tapimmune (TPIV), is collaborating with the well-established, globally known Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, MN, to develop vaccines for breast cancer, which is expected to go into clinical studies early this year. The vaccine is expected to become a major therapy for breast cancer and other infectious diseases. Tapimmune and Mayo Clinic are also in a joint effort to come up with a vaccine for smallpox.
According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 200,000 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in 2010. In 2009, Roche reported sales of $5 billion for Herceptin, an intravenously delivered monoclonal antibody for "HER-2" breast cancer. Tapimmune's vaccine targets antigens on the HER-2 (human epidermal growth receptor 2) receptor that destroys cancer cells.
With its vaccine technology, Tapimmune expects to become a "world class immunotherapy company with products in multiple therapeutic areas in both cancer and infectious diseases," says Dr. Glynn Wilson, Chairman and CEO of Tapimmune. "Our technology gives Tapimmune the potential to develop a new generation of safe and cost-effective vaccines for breast cancer and other infectious diseases," he adds.
With the huge potential impact of its technology on such major diseases, early investors in the company believe Tapimmune's stock is much undervalued, trading over-the-counter at a paltry 21 cents a share. They note that other emerging biotechnology companies in the same stage of product development that Tapimmune is in now has much higher market capitalizations.
Tapimmune's novel technology uses the "Transport of Antigen Processing," or TAP, to alert a human body's immune system and jolt it into action to help destroy cancer cells. Roche's Herceptin is primarily used in patients who express high levels of the antigen, or less than 50% of the population of patients afflicted with the HER-2 breast cancer. But combined with Tapimmune's vaccine, it will improve HER-2's efficacy in a larger population of patients who are immune to HER-2.So when the Roche product and Tapimmune's vaccine are combined, a larger number of patients will benefit.
As such, Tapimmune believes the market potential for HER-2 vaccines that address a larger portion of breast cancer patients is significant and could grow revenues in that area to more than $15 billion.
A phase I clinical trial in breast cancer patients who have a form of the disease that expresses HER-2 receptors (also called HER-2/new breast cancer) is scheduled to be done at Mayo Clinic, with Dr.