Oncolytics Biotech Inc T.ONC

Moderna's CEO Stephan Bancel comments on mRNA cancer vaccine

[Noteable]

January 09, 2023 - Further to a televised interview on CNBC Moderna's CEO Stephane Bancel commented on the company's work on its mRNA cancer vaccine in collaboration with Merck (MSD) and the immune checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda.

Bancel indicated that the vaccine work is focused on the above I/O combinations' T-cell response and the 44% response rate seen in the treatment of melanoma.

Bancel specified with a degree of emphasis that Moderna is budgeting US$4.5 Billion this year towards this research, which is a significant level of R&D funding for this area of their business - and would suggest that Moderna and Merck are significantly committed to seeing this innovative I/O combination treatment approach come to market as-soon-as possible.

ONCY appears to have a significant leg-up on the activation of the T-cell response and the prevention of T-cell exhaustion by remodeling the TME and "priming" the innate and adaptive immune systems in advance of the sequential administration of immune checkpoint inhibition, for example. I would think that any ONCY acquirer such a Pfizer would want to seek an accelerated approval for pelareorep in combination with their CPI in an effort to gain a first to market advantage.

[Noteable]

Bancel's CNBC interview took place at the JPM Healthcare conference being held in San Francisco this week.

[Noteable]

Now both Moderna and BioNTech have announced that they are diverting significant resources towards the development of their oncology programs, in the areas that ONCY has developed pelareorep which now happens to be "Phase 3 ready" and that can be translated into "accelerated approval ready".

[Noteable]

A significant differentiator between Moderna's mRNA cancer vaccine candidate and ONCY's oncolytic virus pelareorep is that pelareorep is delivered through intravenous (IV) injection while Moderna's cancer vaccine can only be delivered by subcutaneous (SC) or intratumoral (IT) injection thus limiting Moderna's vaccine to accessible cancers like melanoma.  

[westcoast1000]

That is a very important point regarding delivery of a possible mRNA vaccine, and how it differs from pela. 

[Noteable]

The ability of ONCY's oncolytic virus pelareorep to be delivered intravenously (IV) contributes to pelareorep's affect in remodeling the TME since the virus is widely dispersed throughout the body and not essentially localized to one area as happens when a drug is delivered intratumorally (IT) or subcutaneously. Any potential absocopal effect through IT delivery is not systemic, and fails

[westcoast1000]

Along those lines, how does a vaccine help if you already have cancer. Is it not intended to prevent the disease, not cure it? If so, where do they give you the shot?

[Normandt]

What I have read about cancer vaccines is that they are different from preventative vaccines.....in that they try to induce the immune system to attack cancer cells already present in the body. Most therapeutic cancer vaccines are still being studied in clinical trials. However, there is another class of therapeutic vaccines that can prevent certain cancers. They help prevent viral infections that

[Noteable]

While vaccines are given to prevent certain cancers like HPV there is currently no way to predict which form of cancer one may develop in the distant future. So until such time that predictive diagnostics develop to the point of being able to forseeing the possibility of developing a particular cancer 10 to 20 years in the future,  cancer vaccines will be confined to acutely treating

[westcoast1000]

That is a very significant and valuable explanation of vaccines, Noteable. Meanwhile, is it reasonable to think that ongoing small doses of pela (once every couple of years) combined with a CI could serve as an actual vaccine in that nascent tumors or neoplasms could be consumed by pela if it could get into the tumor? Is ther a semi-universal CI or are they all specific to particular tumors

[Noteable]

Checkpoint inhibitors are all "universal" with some working better than others in certain cancers. What pelareorep does is to enhance the effectiveness of checkpoint inhibitors through a synergistic effect in which a combination of pelareorep and a checkpoint inhibitor are more effective than either as a monotherapy. Something the company has been saying for a long time.

[itntdf]

i don't doubt for a minute that both brad and matt believe that and have taken pela as a preventitive.  with the safety profile of pela, why not? if it's ever approved for one indicaiton, it will probably be used widely in off-label situations.

[Noteable]

As with CAR-T therapies, significant issues with "personalized mRNA vaccines" of scalability, affordability, and accessibility of personalized cancer vaccines to patients, especially in emerging markets, are complexities of these therapies that are not faced by ONCY's pelareorep in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitors or other I/O agents. Manufacturing and delivery are

[Noteable]

Roche has partnered with BioNTech on the German biotech’s individualized mRNA vaccine platform, iNeST. After posting very low tumor response data in a treatment-experienced group of cancer patients back in 2020, the two companies returned last year with encouraging results for their mRNA shot, known as RO7198457 or BNT122, this time in combination with Roche’s PD-L1