BIOCAD, Russia’s leading innovative biotechnology company, has developed an immunotherapeutic drug that has proved efficient against melanoma. The company presented the results of the tests at the 22nd Russian Cancer Congress, the N+1 website reported.
The tests revealed the medication has led to decreasing or even disappearing of melanomas in 44% of patients, which is a high indicator for this class of drugs. The medication works by innovative method: it blocks protein PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies, which are located on the surface of human immune cells and cancer cells. The interaction between PD-1 and PD-L1 prevents immune cells from destroying malignant tumors, and the elimination of this interaction allows the immune system to destroy cancer cells.
The medications that work on this principle have increased the survival rate in patients with melanoma more than three-fold in comparison with chemotherapy. Currently, foreign pharmaceutical giants such as Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline and others are conducting clinical testing of a number of molecules of this medication class.
BIOCAD representatives assured that the medication developed by the company will cost lower than its foreign counterparts, but specific pricing has yet to be announced.