The Motley Fool: Cancer Vaccines: Doomed to Fail?

Some ideas sound good in theory but just never manage to work out in real-world experience, and cancer vaccines are on their way to that destination. Following the failures of Vical and Merck KGaA with their respective cancer vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK  ) has announced the second pivotal trial failure for its MAGE-A3 cancer vaccine. Glaxo will continue to try to identify patient sub-populations in both melanoma and lung cancer that could/do respond to a clinically significant degree, but the odds are good that this high-risk/high-reward program is on its last legs.

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Cancer Vaccines: Doomed to Fail?

Seeking Alpha: Is There Room For One More Advanced Melanoma Treatment?

Investors should know in about three to six months if Vical's (VICL) Allovectin has the clinical credentials to get FDA approval for treating advanced melanoma. As another cancer immunotherapy company, Dendreon (DNDN), has ably demonstrated though, approval from the FDA is no guarantee of attaining commercially viable market share or retaining investor enthusiasm. So with all of the attention that Roche (RHHBY.OB) and Bristol-Myers (BMY) have gotten for their melanoma drugs Zelboraf and Yervoy, is there enough opportunity left in advanced melanoma for Vical?

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Is There Room For One More Advanced Melanoma Treatment?

Investopedia: The Top Biotech Performers of 2011

This has really been a year of the "haves" versus the "have nots" in biotechnology. Although a few dedicated biotech ETFs have done rather well and there have been some huge individual outperforming stocks, the sector as a whole has not necessarily been all that strong. Still, for those companies that could deliver encouraging data, particularly in the fields of hepatitis and cancer, the market was more than willing to reward the stocks with a higher valuation.


Hepatitis C - The Story of 2011
If any one theme should leap out at biotech investors in 2011, it is the explosion of interest in companies targeting hepatitis C. It is not as though hepatitis C is a new disease, but a host of companies have finally developed compounds that look to offer major improvements in disease management and quality of life for the millions of people with this condition.

Two of the top three performing biotechs with current market capitalizations above $250 million are hepatitis C plays. Pharmasset (Nasdaq:VRUS) has delivered the sort of year that biotech investors dream about for 2011, with the stock up nearly 500% in the last year. The stock was already doing incredibly well on the basis of very strong clinical data in PSI-7977 trials - data that basically showed 100% response in early administration of the drug. This stock found another level, though, when Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq:GILD) stepped up and offered to pay a considerable premium to acquire the company.


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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/The-Top-Biotech-Performers-Of-2011-INHX-MDVN-ONTY-ARIA1216.aspx

Investopedia: XOMA Rearranges The Deck Chairs One More Time

XOMA (Nasdaq:XOMA) really is a remarkable story in many ways. Few companies have survived so long, and raised capital so many times, and done so little with it. While the company has actually approached $100 million in reported sales, and not many biotechs do even that much, the company has never had any real success in the clinic and has basically strung along successive generations of investors on hype and hope. Now that the company is changing up management yet again, investors should be asking themselves if there is really a good reason to stick by a company that has floundered around for more than 20 years to no real purpose.


A Change at the Top
XOMA announced Wednesday that it's CEO Steve Engle was bailing on the company. Engle said, "I am looking forward to applying my expertise building life science companies in the future."

Hmmm, expertise? Engle became XOMA's CEO in August of 2007. In the those four years, XOMA has gone from a market cap north of $350 million to a current market cap of just under $64 million, and the company really is not a great deal closer to having a winning product in its portfolio.


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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/XOMA-Rearranges-The-Deck-Chairs-One-More-Time-XOMA-REGN-PFE-ABT-ISIS-VICL-CELG0901.aspx

Investopedia: Vical Gets Some Validation

Investors in small-cap vaccine biotech Vical (Nasdaq:VICL) received some good news late on Thursday, as the company announced a licensing deal with a major Japanese pharmaceutical company. While this is a solid deal that will bring some more cash into the business, the real question for investors these days is whether Vical's candidate for metastatic melanoma can ultimately obtain FDA approval and then stand with the likes of Bristol-Myers' (NYSE:BMY) Yervoy in the market.

Astellas Steps Up  
While Vical's Allovectin-7 therapy for melanoma gets a lot of the press, Thursday's deal concerns the company's experimental TransVax product for cytomegalovirus (CMV) in transplant patients. Astellas Pharma (OTCBB:ALPMY.PK) has acquired worldwide rights to TransVax and will assume responsibility for its clinical development. In exchange, Vical gets a staggered up-front payment of $35 million in total, future potential milestones, royalty payments (if the drug makes it to market) and the option to co-promote the drug in the United States.

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http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Vical-Gets-Some-Validation-VICL-BMS-GSK-NVS-SNY-SGEN-DNDN-AMGN-AGEN0718.aspx

Cancer Vaccines Continue To Show Promise

I have to applaud the patience and diligence of the folks running Dendreon (Nasdaq:DNDN). After years of setbacks and complications (including three Phase 3 studies), the company and its investors finally saw the big payoff as the FDA approved the first-ever cancer vaccine - Provenge. 

With Provenge now on the market, and the squabbling and speculating about reimbursement fully underway, the question moves to who might be next to advance a cancer vaccine to the market. Is this really a major new avenue of oncology, or is it a small access road along the bigger highway of traditional drugs? 


For the complete column, please go to:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/Cancer-Vaccines-Continue-To-Show-Promise-DNDN-SNY-GSK-VICL-CLDX-PFE-GERN0707.aspx