The Company announces that it has received notification that Helium Special Situations Fund Limited has a beneficial interest in Scancell Holdings of 11,420,000 ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each which represents approximately 5.87 per cent of the issued capital of the Company.
For further information contact:
Scancell Holdings Plc
Dr Richard Goodfellow / Professor Lindy Durrant+ 44 (0)20 7653 9850*
Newgate Threadneedle (Financial PR)
Guy McDougall / Heather Armstrong+ 44 (0)20 7653 9850
Zeus Capital - Nominated Adviser/Joint Broker
Ross Andrews /Andrew Jones + 44 (0)161 831 1512
XCAP - Joint Broker
Jon Belliss / Adrian Kirk +44 (0)207 101 7070
*calls to this number will reach Newgate Threadneedle, at Scancell’s instruction.
About Scancell
Scancell is developing novel therapeutic vaccines for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases based on its groundbreaking ImmunoBody® and Moditope™ technology platforms. Scancell’s first cancer vaccine SCIB1 is being developed for the treatment of melanoma and is in Phase 2 clinical trials.
Treating cancer by vaccination allows small non-toxic doses of a vaccine to be administered to a patient, stimulating an immune response. Effective cancer vaccines need to target dendritic cells to stimulate both parts of the cellular immune system; the helper cell system where inflammation is stimulated at the tumour site; and the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte or CTL response where immune system cells are primed to recognise and kill specific cells.
A limitation of many cancer vaccines currently in development is that they cannot specifically target dendritic cells in vivo. Several groups have demonstrated successful vaccination by growing dendritic cells ex vivo, pulsing them with tumour antigens and re-infusing them. However, this procedure is patient specific, time consuming and expensive. Scancell has developed its breakthrough patent protected ImmunoBody® technology to overcome these limitations.
An ImmunoBody® is a human antibody or fusion protein engineered to express helper cell and CTL epitopes from tumour antigens over-expressed by cancer cells. Antibodies are ideal vectors for carrying T cell epitopes from tumour antigens as they have long half-lives and can effectively target dendritic cells via their Fc receptors, allowing efficient stimulation of both helper and CTL responses.
The Immunobody® technology can be adapted to provide the basis for treating any tumour type and may also be of potential utility in the development of vaccines against hepatitis, HIV and other chronic infectious diseases.
Scancell has also identified and patented a series of modified epitopes that stimulate the production of killer CD4 that destroy tumours without toxicity. The Directors believe that the Moditope™ platform could have a profound effect on the way that cancer vaccines are developed.