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Bavarian Nordic’s activities in the field of cancer immunotherapy are conducted by its U.S. subsidiary, BN ImmunoTherapeutics Inc., established in 2005. The subsidiary was founded based on positive findings from Bavarian Nordic’s previous studies with a vaccine candidate targeted against melanoma cancer.
The most recent drugs for the treatment of cancer diseases are based on immunotherapy. Several new drugs are based on passive immunotherapy (antibody therapy) such as HER-2/Neu antibody (Herceptin®) for the treatment of breast cancer. The drawback of passive immunotherapy is that it uses only one arm of the immune system (the humoral arm) based on antibodies. Research has shown that controlling cancer will largely depend on a T-cell response (the other arm of the immune system).
BN ImmunoTherapeutics’ vaccination strategy for developing vaccines against cancer is based on activating both a humoral and a cellular immune response. The company has two vaccine candidates under development, one against breast cancer and the other against prostate cancer.
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