BruCells has resumed the development of a fusion vaccine for the treatment of metastatic melanoma for the following reasons :
- this pathology still represents a significant unmet therapeutic need
- this pathology responds to immunotherapy
- the company has experience on this indication and has already performed a clinical trial with autologous DCs loaded with several peptides (BCL002)
- the fusion of cancer cell lines with dendritic cell lines in efficient.
The preclinical development with the plasmacytoid DC cell line and a selected cancer cell lines is almost complete.
BCL005 has received an orphan drug designation (ODD) from FDA in October 2010 for the treatment of Grades IIb to IV melanoma.
The clinical development is planned to begin in 2012.