Nouscom CEO outlines cancer vaccine strategy

Nouscom, which raised EUR 42 million via a series B financing round, is developing two multi-neoantigen containing vaccines that should enter clinical studies in 2018; it has hopes to combine these vaccine products with checkpoint inhibitors. Nicosia explained more about how the company will use its fresh cash, what makes it stand out in the crowded oncology space and how NousCom hopes to work with pharma partners in the future. Nouscom is planning to develop NOUS-209 as a therapeutic vaccine in patients with microsatellite instable tumors, which are most often found in patients with gastric, colorectal and endometrial cancers. The Swiss/Italian biotech also intends to evaluate NOUS-209 as a prophylactic vaccine in Lynch Syndrome Carriers, a group of individuals with a significantly higher risk of developing cancer. The biotech's second product candidate is NOUS-100-PV, a personalized neoantigen-based vaccine expected to enter clinical studies in the second half of 2018, and likely to be combined with checkpoint inhibitors. A third program, in the discovery phase, is an oncolytic virus specifically targeted to tumor cells.