cCAM Medical
cCam Medical is a new Bio Pharmaceutical company established under a strategic collaboration between Pontifax and the international bio-pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche. The company develops monoclonal antibodies for cancer, with melanoma as its lead indication. cCAM’s approach involves generating a cancer specific immune response in patients.
Lead agent
cCAM’s lead agent is CM-10, an immune-modulating antibody that binds CEACAM1. CM-10’s anticancer effect has been demonstrated in multiple preclinical tests, including in vivo studies in tumor
bearing mice. CM-10’s effect is elicited by its ability to block binding of CEACAM1 on cancer cells to
CEACAM1 on certain immune cells. This abrogates the immunosuppressive function of CEACAM1,
promoting cell killing by T cells. Of note, the effect of CEACAM1 blockade does not lead to general
immune activation, but a cancer-specific one.
The innovation
The company was founded based on research conducted by Dr. Gal Markel, Chief Scientist of The Ella Institute of Melanoma, Cancer Research Center at the Sheba Medical Center. Although CEACAM1 has been known for decades, its immunosuppressive role in certain cancer types has only been recently identified. Dr. Markel demonstrated that melanoma cells can suppress the immune system by expressing CEACAM1 on their surface. cCAM has an exclusive, worldwide, royalty-bearing license from Tel Hashomer - Medical Research, Infrastructure and Services LTD.
Strategic development program
cCAM chose metastatic melanoma as a lead indication as it represents a highly unmet need despite
recent progress. Moreover, as a highly immunogenic tumor, melanoma is considered suitable for
immunotherapy, as evidenced by clinical data with other immunomodulating antibodies.
High expression of CEACAM1 has been documented in several solid and blood borne malignancies,
which creates an opportunity for expansion into additional indications. These include lung cancer,
pancreatic cancer and multiple myeloma . In some cases, the expression level of CEACAM1 was
associated with poor prognosis.
Since the amount of CEACAM1 on tumor cells can be measured and quantified, the company intends
to use this as a predictive biomarker for patient selection. This may substantially decrease the risk
associated with clinical development as well as shorten the clinical path and time to market.
Competitive landscape
Immunomodulation for cancer has become a validated approach following recent FDA approval for
Provenge in prostate cancer, the first ever regulatory approval of a therapeutic cancer vaccine. In
particular, the field of immunomodulatory antibodies is gaining momentum following promising
clinical results with multiple agents, including ipilimumab (anti-CTLA4) and MDX-1106 (anti-PD1).
Nevertheless, there is a clear need to identify novel targets for immunomodulation.
Team
cCAM team is comprised of executives with broad managerial and R&D experience.
Executive Chairperson - Silvia Noiman, Ph.D., MBA, Dr. Noiman has more than 19 years of
experience in entrepreneurship, management, drug discovery and development. She was the founder
and SVP of Predix Pharmaceutics Inc. (Epix, NASDAQ).
CEO - Tehila Ben-Moshe, Ph.D., Dr. Ben-Moshe joined the company from Protalix BioTherapeutics
(AMEX: PLX) where she was managing the preclinical development of recombinant proteins. |
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