ISA Pharmaceuticals Co-authors Publication in Nature Reviews Cancer on Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines

May 04, 2021

Oegstgeest, The Netherlands, May 04, 2021 – ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V., a clinical-stage immunotherapy company dedicated to developing immunotherapeutics for oncology and infectious diseases, announces publication in Nature Reviews Cancer of a review of therapeutic cancer vaccines. The paper is co-authored by ISA’s Chief Scientific Officer, Prof. Cornelis “Kees” Melief in collaboration with key opinion leaders at international institutions including the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, the Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy, San Francisco, and the Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands. This is the link to the online article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41568-021-00346-0.

The Nature Reviews Cancer paper summarizes key insights gleaned from previous successful and non-successful therapeutic vaccine trials. It provides an overview of the numerous mechanisms cancer cells use to evade treatment as well as strategies that can be utilized to significantly enhance clinical efficacy of immunotherapies. ISA’s on-going clinical trials are based on this state-of-the art scientific knowledge.

Prof. Kees Melief, Chief Scientific Officer at ISA Pharmaceuticals, said: “Therapeutic cancer vaccines have undergone a resurgence in the past years. This paper highlights key cancer vaccine trials with clinical impact and provides insight on how to improve crucial T cell immune responses and co-treatment for clinical success. Our Synthetic Long Peptide (SLP^®) technology is amongst the most successful platforms. We have safely completed multiple human clinical studies in hundreds of patients, showing a consistently positive correlation between the size of the vaccine-induced immune response and the clinical response.”

Gerben Moolhuizen, Chief Executive Officer of ISA Pharmaceuticals, said: “Scientific knowledge advances through publications and collaborations. We are delighted to have contributed to this paper in Nature Reviews Cancer, co-authored with scientists at prestigious international institutions in the US and The Netherlands. This paper summarises important lessons learned from over a decade of scientific research in the field. It shows that targeted activation of the immune system by therapeutic vaccines can play an important role in beating cancer. We see our SLP therapeutics as a key immunotherapy platform with the potential to substantially improve the treatment of patients with cancer and infectious diseases.”

ISA’s product portfolio consists of multiple SLP therapeutics for cancer and infectious diseases. Its SLP approach is designed to unleash a durable and broad T cell immune response to specific diseases. It enables a patient’s own immune system to attack and destroy tumour cells or viruses for significant clinical benefit.

ISA’s T cell activating SLP programs include:

• ISA101b for Human Papilloma Virus type 16 (HPV16) induced tumors. Partnered with Regeneron and in potentially registrational phase II clinical trials for HPV16-induced head and neck and cervical cancers, in combination with an anti-PD1 antibody.

• ISA102, undisclosed target, late stage pre-clinical asset.

• ISA103 for cancers that over-express PRAME, a cancer testis antigen responsible for cancerous cell behaviour in multiple cancer types, late stage pre-clinical asset.

• ISA104 for chronic HBV, aimed to functionally cure hepatitis B-infected patients, late stage pre-clinical asset.

• ISA106 for treatment of patients infected with Covid-19 to prevent progression to severe disease, late stage pre-clinical asset.

Meet ISA Pharmaceuticals in May at the Bio€quity conference or email us on BD@isa-pharma.com to set up a meeting.

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About ISA Pharmaceuticals

ISA Pharma is an immunotherapy company developing treatments for various cancers and infectious diseases. ISA Pharma has best-in-class technology to stimulate and activate the human immune system, specifically T cells, to fight diseased or infected cells. Its lead asset ISA101b is in late-stage clinical trials for human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16)-induced cancer in a collaboration with US pharmaceutical company Regeneron. Other assets are in preclinical stage development and include immunotherapies to treat patients that suffer from chronic hepatitis B infections, cancers that over-express PRAME, cancers caused by other HPV types than HPV16, or SARS-CoV2 infections. For more information, please visit www.isa-pharma.com.