A U. S manufactured drug DCVax Brain, targeting brain cancer victims has found it first market in picturesque Switzerland.
The Bothell-based biotech company Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc. has released the world’s first vaccine that works by empowering the immune system to fight off brain cancer. While the company works to gain access to American and European markets, the vaccine will of now be administered in various treatment centers, across Switzerland.Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc. has made public that in clinical trials, patients treated with DCVax-Brain survived twice as long as those who did not receive the vaccine, and this too, without major side effects.
The financial angle was supported by Navid Malik, an analyst at Collins Stewart, who was quoted:” This is an unprecedented product. The whole field has opened up with this vaccine."
The product works by combining the patient's immune cells with so-called cancer biomarkers from the tumor. DCVax-Brain allows the immune system to fight the disease without side effects. Studies found the medicine delays recurrence of the tumor by 18.1 months for new patients, Northwest claims.
According to the U.S. National Cancer Institute, there are 19,000 new cases of primary brain cancer diagnosed each year. The five-year survival rate is around 30 percent.
Source-Medindia
ANN/M
