Novel colorectal cancer vaccine goes into production in Estonia
The Tallinn-based company Cellin Technologies LLC has started the production of a personal cancer drug MelCancerVac that may become world's first vaccine against colorectal cancer.
The vaccine was developed by DanDrit Biotech of Denmark. It uses the patients own cells, is non-toxic and so doesn't have the side-effects associated with chemo- and radiotherapy.
The technology behind the new vaccine is based on the Nobel prize winning work on dendritic cells, and works by programming the immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells. The treatment has so far been tested on colorectal cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer in Denmark and Singapore. If the tests following the manufacture in Estonia are successful, MelCancerVac may become the world's first vaccine against colorectal cancer.
Mart Raik, CEO of Cellin Technologies, said that the company was chosen for the production of the drug for it's state-of-the-art facilities and reasonable manufacturing costs.
"About 12 months ago, we signed a contract to produce single components of MelCancerVac; today, we take care of the entire manufacturing process of the vaccine," Raik said. The manufacture cycle for one personal vaccine is 8 days and Cellin Technologies has been contracted for production until 2017.
Editor: M. Oll