Brian Lowe is asking shareholders to have a little patience.

He believes his company is on the verge of a major breakthrough: a vaccine that eradicates cancerous tumours in mice that could eventually be used in humans.


Brian Lowe

But it’s early days yet in a race fraught with hurdles.

Lowe is chief operating officer of ImmunoVaccine Technologies Inc., a Halifax company whose single-dose VacciMax provides long-term protection with no significant side effects and requires no booster shot.

Incorporated in March 2000, IVT started off in animal infectious diseases. In 2004, it branched out to human health. Today, the company focuses largely on therapeutic vaccines for cancers such as cervical and melanoma, not to mention flu and whooping cough.

Results have been extremely promising in clinical trials involving mice genetically cloned to replicate humans.

Scientists initially injected the mice with cancer cells, which formed huge tumours and made them very ill. Within 14 days of receiving the vaccine, each one became tumour-free and perfectly healthy. The mice were re-injected and no new tumours formed. The trials were repeated three times with the same results.

In October 2006, IVT held a cancer workshop in Halifax to show off its findings.

"The experts who attended said it was just striking data, and the sooner we can move into humans, the better," Lowe said yesterday at Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s Atlantic Art of Success conference. IVT was one of 20 successful entrepreneurs recognized by ACOA as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations.

Several years ago, IVT received $3.8 million through ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund. It was the largest such award for any privately held company in Nova Scotia and gave the company credibility and the chance to leverage other private-equity capital.

Wealthy individuals have kicked in about $10 million to help finance the first phase of the human clinical trials. IVT hopes to start injecting people in the last quarter of 2008.

The company has no intention of taking its vaccine all the way to market, which would cost hundreds of millions. Instead, it plans to license the technology to a large pharmaceutical company.

"Some of these companies came to us when they only had an embryonic idea on a piece of paper," ACOA spokesman Richard Gauthier said of the 20 companies recognized this week.

"And we and other partners had a role to help them along, build their business case and in many instances, they’re one of the leading companies in their sector in Atlantic Canada."

Via: Halifax News