A New Star in Cancer Therapy (OTC:ADXS)

Biotechs are fascinating. They have such great promise, yet very few of them actually turn those promises into money — Advaxis (OTC BB:ADXS) is a beginner in the biotech oncology world, but has recently shown some reason to think they stand out from the pack. ADXS might be one of these hidden gems, following DNDN or ONTY. The Oncology sector has been a good investment so far and has provided huge reward this year. There is no doubt that Cancer therapy companies should again be in the Spotlight for the next years.

@@AdsenseRight@@ Advaxis is using Listeria monocytogenes bacteria as a vector to destroy solid tumors in patients. There is no other biotech company that is using this modality to treat cancer patients. It is not some newly discovered drug, but based on a biological entity that has been studied for over a hundred years and whose actions have been well documented if not totally understood. The Listeria platform will also have applications in the fields of infectious disease and autoimmune disorders.

Advaxis is the exclusive licensee of a patented broadly enabling Listeria platform technology that can elicit effective anti-tumor responses. The leading Advaxis Listeria vaccine candidate, Lovaxin C, targets cervical cancer, head cancer and neck cancers. Other Listeria vaccines in development target breast cancer, ovarian cancer and lung cancers.

Advaxis is developing multiple platform approaches to the treatment of several cancers which represent a market potential in excess of $10 billion.

Advaxis’ Phase I/II clinical cervix cancer study in their lead candidate ADXS11-001 showed an impressive overall survival rate of 53% in those patients who fail first line cytotoxic therapy (current survival rate is 5% at one year).

According to statistics provided by the GOG* (Gynaecologic Oncology Group); the median survival rate in months is increased by 88% to 200%. In addition, 3 of the 13 evaluable patients have now survived more than 3 YEARS. That is remarkable; other cancer vaccines have nowhere near the potential that the Advaxis’ vaccine platform has so far.

@@CalendarLeft@@ It is important to understand that Advaxis is developing vaccines for treating patients who have already contracted the target disease, such as cervical or breast cancer. In animal models of breast cancer, the data show that the Advaxis Lovaxin B vaccine, composed of the Listeria with the Her2/neu antigen, was able to successfully stop tumor growth.

Dr. John Rothman, Vice President of Clinical Development for Advaxis said, “The GOG* is an extremely competent and experienced group of clinical researchers. Their interest in collaborating with Advaxis is very encouraging. The GOG* has a thirty-year history of facilitating the development of many therapeutic agents that were once novel and today are well accepted as effective drugs. Our collaboration with this excellent research group will enable us to objectively demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy of our Lovaxin C vaccine for the treatment of women with cervical cancer. ”

Based on over a decade of work in the laboratory of Dr. Yvonne Paterson at the University of Pennsylvania, the Company’s broadly enabling Listeria technology platform uses modified Listeria monocytogenes to deliver a tumor-specific antigen fusion protein. Listeria has the ability to generate a robust immune response and produce an unusually strong and effective therapeutic immune response to existing cancers and other diseases affecting many related immune mechanisms simultaneously and in an integrated fashion. Advaxis’ Listeria-based technology not only generates an unusually profound cytotoxic immune response capable of killing cancer cells, but the Company’s proprietary antigen fusion protein technology minimizes the suppressive effects of regulatory T cells that appear to inhibit many vaccines, and also creates a local tumor environment conducive to the therapeutic effects of the activated tumor killing cells.