NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[HappyLibrarian]

Smallpox is a very different disease than cancer and a vaccine for it could be fabricated using 18th century technology though that vaccine could be dangerous or even lethal to some patients. Over time the Smallpox vaccine was improved. Also Smallpox vaccines are given to healthy patients in advance to prevent illness.

GBM has a much higher degree of lethality and while smallpox is essentially the same disease from patient to patient, for GBM each vaccine must get a custom-tailored vaccine and making it requires late 20th and early 20th century technology. DCVax-L is given to already sick patients whose immune systems are damaged by radiation and chemo.

These facts make GBM very hard to deal with compared to smallpox.

The fact that GBM is much harder to address means that the results we get with it will be less impressive though still worth it. By investing in rolling out DCVax-L we will be able to develop better versions just as the Smallpox vaccine was improved over decades and centuries.