The Blue Ribbon Panel's 10 recommendations for achieving the Cancer Moonshot's ambitious goals are out... if you aren't into immunotherapy yet, you will be soon!
See recommendation B on establishing a national immunotherapy network. Pay close attention to the second paragraph on page 15 - this is exactly the reason why immunotherapy companies turned course today.
Oncosec and Heat Biologics will no doubt be targeted; the former inflames the tumor microenvironment through EP IL-12, which in turn drives a local immunologic response, while the latter maximizes immune activation through the chaperoning of neoantigens to antigen presenting cells, like dendritic cells.
I have mentioned this several times, and I will say it again here - if you improve neoantigen presentation and you also increase the number of available t-cells, what you get are swarms of activated CD8 positive t-cells that match up with tumor cells carrying the same antigens. The end result is a significant increase in tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, or TIL, that contain pd-1 and ctla-4-positive expression. Adding a co-stimulatory molecule like FC-OX40L found in Heat Biologic's COMPACT therapy, adds an additional layer of long term efficacy by greatly expanding the numbers of memory precursor cells. Once checkpoint inhibitors like keytruda are unleashed to block immune suppression, you are essentially staring down a cure for many solid tumors.
Obama has requested just under $700M in his FY2017 budget for implementation of the Blue Ribbon Panel's Cancer Moonshot recommendations, and if passed by Congress - which has overwhelming support from both sides of the aisle - will potentially bring a lot of attention and monetary resources to both Oncosec and Heat Biologics.
Everyone, just watch what happens when you electroporate and combine Heat Biologics' COMPACT therapy with IL-12 and add checkpoint inhibitors to the mix... heck, watch what happens when you simply combine EP IL-12 with Keytruda in metastatic melanoma. This is exactly what is being recommended as an initial immunotherapy target in the Blue Ribbon Panel's list of recommendations for achieving the Cancer Moonshot. To steal VP Biden's words to Obama, "This is a big f'n deal."
