BriaCell Therapeutics (BCT.V) anticipates getting the 24-patient Phase 2a study up and enrolling patients by the end of the quarter. That’s good news because even though it’s a small and early-stage program, it’s a big potential value driver on both the market and business development side. BriaCell is moving aggressively toward combination therapy with BriaVax™ and checkpoint inhibitors. I covered this topic in more detail in my “Cancer Immunotherapy 101” article last week.
Recall, Briacell is developing BriaVax, a whole-cell vaccine, as a targeted immunotherapy for breast cancer. It is assumed to work by inducing an immune response against antigens expressed by both BriaVax and breast cancer cells from the patient. Since the immune response following BriaVax treatment may be dampened by immune checkpoints expressed by the tumor, a combination therapy consisting of BriaVax and drugs like Opdivo® or Keytruda® may result in an enhanced anti-cancer response. I’ll have more to say on this topic once the trial gets underway and we can really talk about the protocol design.