Merck KGaA’s pancreatic cancer vaccine ready for testing

In the quest for a cancer vaccine, Merck KGaA is again stepping into the ring. Vaximm Holding AG, the company's joint venture with a Switzerland's BB Biotech Ventures III, will start testing a therapeutic cancer vaccine in patients next year. The vaccine, VXM01, harnesses the body's immune system to fight cancer by using T-cells to close off the tumor's blood supply. Roche's Avastin also focuses on the tumor's blood supply, but it focuses on eliminating a protein that creates the...

Merck KGaA gets green light on lung cancer vax trials

Merck KGaA got the green light from the FDA to restart its late-stage lung cancer program for its therapeutic vaccine Stimuvax, which had been halted after a patient in a multiple myeloma trial contracted encephalitis in March. Licensed from Oncothyreon, the German pharma company has made a committed effort to bring in a trove of late-stage data on a range of cancers for its closely-watched therapeutic vaccine. Investigators now have an approval to ramp the lung cancer trials back up while...