Immunomic Therapeutics plans to start a Phase 1 clinical study of a plasmid DNA vaccine, ITI-3000, in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), a rare but aggressive form of skin cancer, using PharmaJet’s Stratis needle-free injection system to deliver the vaccine.
The study will be conducted at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
“This therapeutic vaccine trial is the first of its kind in the world and may help address the fact that MCC recurs in 40% of cases after initial treatment, but no adjuvant therapy is approved for these patients,” Dr. Paul Nghiem, co-lead of the clinical study, and head of dermatology at the University of Washington, said in a statement.
The PharmaJet Needle-free System was chosen because of its ability to precisely deliver the vaccine to the intramuscular tissue layer, Dr. Nghiem added.
Chris Cappello, president and CEO of PharmaJet, said oncology applications are a very important part of the company’s R&D pipeline. “Our PharmaJet needle-free systems have been successfully used for the prevention or treatment of HPV-related lesions, lymphoma and solid tumors, among other oncology indications.”
