"They didn't know what they were doing. They were giving injections intravenously and that's why their product is really not optimal. It only has a small number of dendritic cells, 10% harvested cells; they didn't develop it the right way. When Dendreon began it was during the early stages of harvesting dendritic cells, and we were still learning how. They just did it wrong."
With respect to Dendreon - the developer of Provenge, most drugs which are delivered via the intramuscular or intravenous route, and are not "optimal" due to this chosen method of delivery.
Aside from the intradermal route of delivery already being scientically proven to enhance the performance of drugs by up to a 140-fold increase compared to a standard injection, naked DNA injection, intramuscular or intravenous injection, there are also a number of other major advantages to developing intradermal drug delivery technologies - Not least of all is the move towards home-based care where a non-professional carer may soon be required to administer drugs to a patient previously administered in a clinic or hospital, requiring low-risk mechanisms to ensure patient compliance.
"The exponential rise in global population puts increasing strain on many aspects of our society, and healthcare is no exception. The dynamics of this increase are important too. For example, the increases in the elderly population will have a significantly disproportionate impact on our healthcare system, driven by a more rapid increase in patient need over the ability of our society to pay. Increasing numbers of patients, at a time when therapy costs are already high, puts strain on the management of disease in an often over-stretched system. Many delegates recognised that governments are beginning to view future treatments by outcome, in an attempt to find ways to reduce the overall cost burden."
In regards to PRR I've been out of the loop lately so I may be missing something, however under the title of, "Technologies" on Prima's website it refers to research into orally administered vaccines for their "Vaccines Program". Unless they are developing some form of remote controlled robotics to deliver these orally administered vaccines to the targeted site of interest, I don't see how any drug administered via the oral route can be more effective than even Dendreon's current intramuscular route of delivery?
It begs the question whether confidentiality agreements may be distorting information being released to the public?
Are PRR working on vaccines to be delivered Intradermally or Orally, or both?
"One challenge associated with many vaccines today is the requirement for the vaccine to be injected. In collaboration with researchers at the University of New South Wales and the University of Queensland, Prima BioMed is researching ways to orally administer vaccines that are currently injected. The initial approach being taken is to make nanoparticles, small protein beads that then are coated with vaccine, and a protective layer to prevent damage to the vaccine by stomach acid. The nanoparticles have a high surface area containing vaccine to present to the small intestine. The first target for the nanoparticle vaccine is Human Papillloma Virus (HPV). The program is in early stage development."
To add to your article on "intradermal" delivery of DNA Vaccines this following article was also published 01 February 2013 on the website of VGXI - Coridon, a company controlled by Prof Ian Frazer, the brother of PRR's Dr Neil Frazer is working in collaboration with VGXI which entered into a manufacturing agreement with Coridon in April 2012.
DNA Vaccine Delivery Dilemma Solved? Introducing the Painless Patch
Scientists have published a new research paper in the journal Nature Materials that demonstrates that through the use of a pain-free microneedle patch, a DNA Vaccine can be delivered over 100 times more effectively than a regular needle injection.
Working much like a tattoo gun, the patch is capable of delivering the vaccine through several layers of skin. However, much unlike a tattoo gun, the patch is reportedly “pain-free”. What’s even more interesting about this delivery concept is that it would eliminate the need for a trained professional to administer the vaccine. The user would simply have to apply the patch themselves for about 15 minutes. After that time, the microneedles dissolve and leave behind “vaccine depots that can then present vaccine to the patient’s immune system over longer time periods” stated Peter C. DeMuth, the lead author of the paper from the Department of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US.
According to the researchers, “when [the patch was] applied to viable macaque skin ex vivo, multilayer tattooing elicited 140-fold greater gene expression compared to naked DNA injection.”
The paper also goes so far as to make a comparison between the patch and electroporation, stating that “in tests with mice, the researchers found that the immune response induced by the DNA-delivering film was as good as or better than that achieved with electroporation.”
The claim that this method is painless is definitely what makes this method so appealing when compared to other methods such as the standard injection or electroporation. The patch would also not require refrigeration, an absolute advantage of DNA Vaccines over traditional vaccines in general, lowering the cost of transport, storage, and administration.
The patch can also be customized to suit different dosing requirements through the adjustment of the polymer layers under that patch that house the DNA Vaccine and adjuvant. The microneedles implant the polymer films into the first millimeter of the skin and, through hydrophobic interactions that occur over the next days or weeks, the polymers break down, releasing their DNA payload into the surrounding cells.
Future tests will be conducted on non-human primates in vivo to determine whether human trials can proceed. If this patch proves successful at generating significant immune responses, the research team is confident that this method could be applied to many diseases and easily dispensed in a pandemic type of situation." - DNA Vaccine Delivery Dilemma Solved? Introducing the Painless Patch ____________________
One of Prof Ian frazer's co-authors is a Principle Investigator / Researcher at the University of Queensland, Dr Tarl Prow
Dr Tarl Prow - Profile Synopsis Over the past few years, my collaborators and I developed microneedle-based drug and vaccine delivery to treat and/or prevent cancers. The development of novel nanolayered microneedles will help us deliver therapeutic/diagnostic nanoparticles to site of interest. Over the last year, I have used edge-cutting non-invasive imaging, such as reflectance confocal microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, to identify the therapeutics uses for silver nanoparticles by analysing the metabolic effects of skin in volunteers. In addition, I have studied the penetration of quantum dots and nanotoxicology of metal nanoparticles in human skin metabolism using advanced time correlated single photon counting techniques. - View Profile Synopsis ____________________
Coridon’s HPV DNA Vaccine Shows Promise in Preclinical Trials Professor Ian Frazer, the man behind both of the HPV vaccines on the market today, Gardasil® (marketed by Merck & Co) and Cervarix® (marketed by GlaxoSmithKline), hasgone back to the drawing board to create a novel therapeutic HPV vaccine for Allied Healthcare Group’s investment company, Coridon.
While the existing HPV vaccines are effective at preventing transmission of the Human Papilloma Virus, Prof Frazer’s new vaccine is poised to combat existing infection and prevent and treat the onset of cancer.
Preclinical data supports the notion that this new therapeutic vaccine can prevent tumor growth in immunized animals compared to the control group, all of which developed large tumors.
“These are very promising results for this program. We are moving another step closer to developing a therapeutic treatment for HPV-associated cervical cancer,” said Lee Rodne, Group Managing Director of Allied Healthcare Group.
In the preclinical trial, 3 groups of 10 mice were given intradermal vaccinations. Each group was vaccinated either with the Coridon HPV mixed DNA vaccine, with E7 protein with adjuvant that served as the control model, or received no vaccination at all. The immunizations were administered twice at three weeks apart, following which, tumor cells were implanted in the mice and tumor formation was monitored.
As expected, the mice that received no vaccine developed large tumors. However, the mice that were given Coridon’s HPV vaccine survived with no tumors to the completion of the study." - Coridon’s HPV DNA Vaccine Shows Promise in Preclinical Trials
As both brothers, Neil and Ian are working on new HPV Vaccines for PRR and Coridon respectively, are the two companies collaborating together in any way or form???
PRR Price at posting:
9.3¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Not Held
(20min delay)