Immunotherapy-based cancer vaccines could permanently kill tumors by stimulating immune cells in multiple ways. At the 27th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT), researchers presented their advances in this field with different techniques in the scientific symposium “Novel nucleic acid and cell-based vaccines for cancer,” organized by the infectious diseases and vaccines committee.

AC Immune SA has landed a potential $2.2 billion deal for its anti-amyloid beta Alzheimer’s disease vaccine, ACI-24.060, with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., under which it will get $100 million up front and is eligible to receive an option exercise fee, plus potential development, commercial and sales-based milestones of up to $2.1 billion.

By isolating a single clone from human isolates, researchers from the National Taiwan University College of Medicine aimed to enhance the immunogenicity of the Zika virus (ZIKV).

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a $5 million grant from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) to support research aimed at developing new immunotherapies for different types of blood-based cancers.

Researchers from the University of Florida have developed a novel mRNA cancer vaccine that aims to reprogram the immune system to target and attack cancer cells effectively. The study led by Elias Sayour reported a new mRNA vaccine design where the mRNA payload was wrapped into a multilamellar vesicle within an onion-like hierarchical structure. The findings were published in the May 9, 2024 issue of Cell.

AC Immune SA has landed a potential $2.2 billion deal for its anti-amyloid beta Alzheimer’s disease vaccine, ACI-24.060, with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., under which it will get $100 million up front and is eligible to receive an option exercise fee, plus potential development, commercial and sales-based milestones of up to $2.1 billion.

A licensing deal worth potentially up to $1.2 billion with Sanofi SA has breathed new life into Novavax Inc., which has struggled to compete in the COVID-19 space with powerhouses Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc.

Cancer vaccines specialist Infinitopes Precision Immunomics Ltd. announced the closing of a £12.8 million (US$16.1 million) seed round and outlined plans to start a phase I/IIa study of the lead program in the third quarter of this year.

There is still a need for developing more potent and broadly neutralizing vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 with improved durability. At the recent ESCMID meeting, Astrazeneca plc presented a new mRNA vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that encodes for self-assembling virus-like particle (VLP) antigens.