Biomira Inc announced that Prima BioMed Ltd's subsidiary, CancerVac commenced a phase II trial of its immunotherapy technology in patients with progressive ovarian cancer.

In March 2004, Biomira announced a licensing agreement allowing access by CancerVac to Biomira's licensed exclusive worldwide rights to the MUC1 protein in relation to CancerVac's Mannan fusion protein therapeutic vaccine being used in the Phase II study. The Biomira MUC1 patent portfolio includes certain rights to patents held by Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRTL) of London, UK, which are essential for the development and commercialization of CancerVac's Mannan-MUC1 fusion protein used for cancer therapy, a release from Biomira said.

CancerVac has developed an immunotherapy that utilizes the patient's own dendritic cells treated ex-vivo to stimulate a cellular immune response following re-injection of the cells into the patient. The patients are expected to receive seven treatments over a 12-month period during which clinical investigators will assess the tumour by the level of CA-125 in the blood, a sensitive measure of tumour size. The trial is expected to recruit upto 20 ovarian cancer patients.

In partial consideration for the license rights provided by Biomira to CancerVac, Biomira acquired a 10 per cent equity stake in CancerVac, and a seat on the Board of CancerVac.

CancerVac is a subsidiary of Prima BioMed. The company was formed to develop and commercialize technology licensed from the Austin Research Institute, a medical research institute located in Melbourne Australia. The technology being developed is described as immunotherapy.