Hi RK,
Let me know if you can what the link is for that new patent to save me time in doing dd. If it is a patent, then NWBO wouldn't be hiding any proprietary stuff if they were so interested in protecting it from being copied. They'd just simply not apply for a patent or not include it in the current patent just like COKE didn't apply for a patent for their formula (because anyone can then just copy that formula and they would care diddly about patent infringement.) But as you noted other labs and researchers all have their own versions of DC generation which may even be an improvement over the ones used by NWBO so I don't really see much value yet from these NWBO patents (until the results are out from their trials.) I am surprised by NWBO and Dr. Liau's decision though to switch the preparation of the tumor sample from their earlier successful pI GBM studies to this current pIII as well as their TLR agonist pI/II studies as Pyrr pointed out to me. I havn't seen any justification or good reason for this change from either UCLA or NWBO and my own scientific background tells me that this is a MAJOR change that could alter the potency of the DC vaccine IRREGARDLESS of how good the tech is for generating mDC. If you ever want an example of variation of potency in vaccines, just look at DVAX use of a TLR agonist in their pIII trial for Heplisav in HepB vaccinations compared to the current ones on the market that uses the aluminum adjuvant. The efficacy of using TLR agonist is so much greater that the FDA is worried that it is too effective that safety of the patient (to triggering an autoimmune disease) might be endangered. Also, look at DVAX's preliminary use of a TLR 9 agonist in preclinical trials with mice that resulted in 100% tumor clearance in all the mice. There was no use of any laborious mDC preparation. EVentually I do predict that DC vaccines will fail the market test (like Provenge) due to how expensive it is to produce compared to other alternatives but this won't be for a while. So IMO NWBO will be around for a while since so many believe in their science such as DIRECT. I'm just not one of them. But I have hope that there will be some validation for cancer vaccines that is more effective than provenge and successful inthe market place and would be delighted if even NWBO was the first to do so. If you follow CLDX, watch carefully for their 2nd IA announcement which can be a sign for potential failure if no halt for efficacy occurs at that point.
