BiovaxID

Biovest International, Inc (OTCQB: BVTI) is a Minneapolis-based biotechnology company. Their active immunotherapy, BiovaxID, is a cancer vaccine whose first indication is intended to be consolidation/adjuvant therapy of follicular Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Unlike a preventative vaccine, such as for measles or mumps, BiovaxID is administered as a therapeutic cancer vaccine, designed to stimulate and "train" the patient's immune system to respond and attack cancerous cells, even long after therapy has been stopped — each vaccine being unique to that particular patient. Beginning with an excisional (>2 cm) lymph node biopsy, tumor cells are fused with Biovest's proprietary mouse/human heterohybridoma in order to induce secretion of normally surface-bound tumor immunoglobulin (idiotype or Id). Id-secreting clones are identified by a bioinformatics approach which confirms a match of each vaccine's unique idiotype sequence to the tumor’s after which they are cultured (expanded) in a personal-scale, disposable hollow-fiber AutovaxID™ bioreactor system. In this manner, each vaccine is highly-specifically matched to highly-unique segments of the patient's tumor genome. During culture, supernatant (containing idiotype) is collected until sufficient amounts have been produced to yield adequate dosage of vaccine. This supernatant is purified by affinity chromatography and conjugated (bonded) to keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH), an immune-stimulating carrier protein, resulting in a finished vaccine that can be shipped and administered to patients. In the Phase III clinical trial, manufacturing success was approximately 95% of treated patients.

The BiovaxID vaccine is manufactured through a process known as rescue fusion hybridization. Since BiovaxID is a personalized vaccine, each patient’s vaccine is individually manufactured from a tissue biopsy obtained from a patient’s own tumor. This approach is used because there is a unique protein called an “idiotype” expressed exclusively on the cancerous B-cells. So, when a full, high-fidelity copy of the idiotype is linked to a foreign protein (KLH), and administered with an immune-enhancing agent (GM-CSF), the resulting vaccine can mount a highly specific anti-lymphoma attack that “trains” the body’s own immune system to solely recognize the idiotype as a “foreign invader”, thus stimulating and recruiting the patient’s own immune system to destroy micro-pockets of cancer cells that may remain following chemotherapy and potentially target and destroy newly arising lymphoma cells, thus delaying or preventing cancer recurrence. As such, through its unique mode of action, and exemplary safety record, BiovaxID represents a new therapeutic approach to treating follicular lymphoma.