Malaysian Firm to Commercialize Cuban Vaccine against Cancer

Malaysia's biotechnology firm Bioven, which conducts clinical Phase III trials of a promising Cuban vaccine against cancer, plans to list in London after a fruitful cooperation with Cuba.

The relationship of the Caribbean country with Bioven, of which the Malaysian government is one of its major shareholders, is an example of South-South cooperation, according to Elnartd White, commercial manager of CIMAB, the commercializing entity of the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM) that created the vaccine, the Granma newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Since 2008, through an agreement with the CIM, Bioven carries out the clinical development of the Cuban vaccine in Europe and part of Asia and Oceania, said Blanco.

Since then, Bioven placed the drug, which targets non-small lung cancer cells, in a larger posterior test, and Stephen Drew, chief executive, said that its presence in the Alternative Investment Market, the junior stock market of London, can help speed up commercial thrust.

The medicament is a kind of immunotherapy that targets proteins called EGF (epidermal growth factor), over expressed by cancer cells.

The Phase III trial, the last one before regulatory approval, started in May with the participation of 419 patients from ten countries.
Much of the clinical development work is done in Scotland, in cooperation with the Beatson Cancer Institute in Glasgow.