Biotech Values

[The Danish Dude]

Prometheus just the start. NWBO next.

Maverick_1 wrote:
NWBO worth much MORE to MERCK (IMHO) than this just announced $10.8 Bln in cash to acquire Prometheus Biosciences a greater than 20 year old company(RXDX):

No cancer competition to NWBOs DCVax platform. Two non competing pipeline agents not in P3.



Merck was about to buy Seagen last year. $30B bid. Then suddenly August 26th. 2022

"Merck and Seagen can't agree on a price for their rumored merger: Bloomberg"

So Pfizer eventually bought for $44B.

So how come Merck stalled?

Lets look at the JAMA article Information, for NWBOs DCVax-L P3 trial, peer reviewed by 73 doctors:

Accepted for Publication: August 27, 2022.
Published Online: November 17, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.5370
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/2798847

That was a nice "coincidence".

So why would the article information have any leverage on Mercks decision?

Well, Mercks checkpoint inhibitor Keytruda is in UCLA's most prestigious SPORE trial currently, in combo with DCVax-L.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04201873

Actual Study Start Date : January 8, 2020
Estimated Primary Completion Date : August 1, 2024
Estimated Study Completion Date : August 1, 2025

Linda Liau, the lead investigator of the DCVax-L P3 trial, have now had 4 presentations during the last two years, all about "RESISTANCE".






In all of these she mentions combo trials with DCVax-L. There are TWO. One with Poly-ICLC, that has been running for OVER 10 years and is soon over.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01204684?term=DC+Vaccine+and+Adjuvant+TLR-3&draw=2&rank=1

Presentation 10/26/2022 :

Dr. Linda Liau presented slides that also showed some extraordinary OS results for the combination trials with DCVax-L and other treatments. One slide was the combination with DC Vaccine plus poly-ICLC. The survival probability was about 50%, and the mOS was approaching 120 months or 10 years. This slide also showed Progression Free Survival (PFS) of almost 100 months (8.33 years).

BAM. Try to compare that mOS to standard of care.

The other combo trial is the SPORE trial with Keytruda (Pembrolizumab) which is donated for free by Merck and Poly-ICLC, which has a stunning efficacy of around 65% and yes ... we are talking glioblastoma.

So ... what is happening in NYAS Frontiers of Immunotherapy in few weeks?



Well Session 12 was moved to Session 1.

It is about RESISTANCE, which was Linda Liaus theme for her last 4 presentations revolving around combo trials with DCVax-L.

The chairman for the session is George Zavoico who has been on the committee for NYAS for decades and who already as an analyst in 2012 predicted checkpoint inhibitors and cancer vaccines to be "tomorrows big cancer disruption".

Now he is there under the guise of NWBO. An employee.



So Merck bought Prometheus who is NOT into cancer and who has two pipeline agents in Phase 2. NOT phase 3. They are not a competitor to NWBO and cancer vaccines.

FOR 11 BILLION DOLLARS!!!

So Merck is STILL "lacking" in the cancer immunotherapy section. But they are involved in the combo trial with DCVax-L that shows extreme efficacy against the worlds worst tumor.

NWBO has received MIA approval in the UK a MONTH ago, at the now most licensed gene therapy CDMO; Advent Bioservices, who got commercially licenced to manufacture DCVax-L.

And MHRA in the UK (the pendant to FDA in the US) just received the following mention in the Pathway to a Cure report (after years of research by the All Parliamentary Group for Brain Cancer)

https://www.braintumourresearch.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/appgbt/btr_2667_appgbt-briefing_pathway_a4_36pp_2023_singles_lores.pdf?sfvrsn=27ac8501_3

A specific "note" to DCvax-L:

• Explore how the MHRA, HTA, and NICE can
cooperate better to enable new treatments to
be made available in the UK, such as immune
vaccination, and immune cell therapy which use
a patient’s own specific antigens and dendritic
cells respectively
• Where possible, external controls such as
previous trials data to replace placebos for
brain tumour patients

But Merck is in a project with Moderna on a mRNA cancer vaccine?

Thats right!



7 years away and with "promising" results against melanoma, with 24% reduced recurrence with Keytruda ALONE and in combination with Keytruda reduced melanoma’s recurrence by 44%.

Keytruda has ZIP reduced recurrence against glioblastoma alone. But 65% with DCvax-L.

But good luck for cancer patients awaiting 2030 results, when DCVax-L is here now, finished and just awaits MAA approval by MHRA in the UK.

Checkpoint inhibitors will have a $65B market around 2025. Keytruda sells for $22B a year now. Patent cliff in 2028. DCVax-L will probably work as well with Opdivo from Bristol Meyers Squibb.

So let's see, when Merck does an investment into Cancer Immunotherapy and if they voluntarily walks away from that UCLA SPORE trial, when they currently throw Keytruda at every trial they can think of, and these fails again and again and again.