Bay Area cancer vaccine maker Bullet Biotechnology is developing a therapy for B cell lymphomas, hacking a patient’s own immune system to treat these cancers.
It takes the typical vaccine approach – targeting a marker exclusive to B cells that elicits a cellular immune response – from both T and B cells. Bullet uses directed conjugation to attach a unique idiotype protein to the outside of an inert virus, essentially disguising it as a pathogen – and training the immune system to recognize this as a disease causing protein.
The two-year-old company’s raised about $2.5 million in angel funding, and just recently raised another $700,000 of a potential $2.5 million second round that’ll convert to a Series B.
The underlying technology was developed by Stanford University lymphoma researcher Ronald Levy, in collaboration with Stanford chemical engineering professor Jim Swartz. It targets the idiotype protein
There are a number of therapies for B cell lymphoma, but none of them are curative. Rituxan has been rather effective for lymphoma patients, but the side effects are still difficult to manage.
“The safety profiles can be a lot better with B cell lymphomas because it’s only targeting this one very specific population of cells,” Quinn said. “For other cancers, it’s harder to find that unique marker to go after.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
While cancer vaccines have had a dubious success rate, Quinn is optimistic that a cancer vaccine approach. He thinks, if finetuned, the cancer vaccine approach could actually outpace CAR-Ts and checkpoint inhibitors.
“If we get the immune response started, we can change the trajectory of the disease,” Quinn said. “It could potentially be curative, though we’re not talking about that.”
This isn’t the only company developing a vaccine for B cell lymphomas – Minnesota-based Biovest, for instance, has a similar product called BiovaxID that’s past Phase III trials and awaiting regulatory approval.
