BioSante to re-initiate prostate cancer vaccine program

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. Drug maker BioSante Pharmaceuticals has restarted a development program for a prostate cancer vaccine, the company said Monday.

The company announced plans to begin treating prostate cancer patients using the GVAX Prostate vaccine in a phase 2 clinical trial at Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center beginning in fourth quarter 2010.

“We have worked with GVAX Prostate Cancer Vaccine for several years and believe there is a great potential to develop a treatment regimen that will be a significant benefit to men who suffer with prostate cancer,” Johns Hopkins associate professor Charles Drake said in a statement on behalf of BioSante.

The news comes days after the Food and Drug Administration approved Dendreon Corp.’s prostate cancer vaccine Provenge (sipuleucel-T), which works by modifying the patient’s own immune cells.