The data monitoring committee ended the six-year odyssey after ruling it would be futile to keep treating patients with the Bristol-Myers Squibb-partnered Prostvac. Shares in Bavarian Nordic fell more than 50% following the news, wiping out gains made in 2015 when the Bristol-Myers deal dialed up investor expectations for the therapeutic cancer vaccine. The deal gave Bristol-Myers an option to license Prostvac for a fee that may have topped $230 million, but is now likely $80 million, for a period of time after the release of data from the phase 3.   The failure of Prostvac to improve overall survival in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer has crushed hopes that Bavarian Nordic will see much of the close to $1 billion in milestones tied to the Bristol-Myers deal. Copenhagen, Denmark-based Bavarian Nordic’s hopes of salvaging Prostvac now rest on whether it can boost the effect of other immuno-oncology agents, notably Bristol-Myers’ PD-1 and CTLA-4 checkpoint inhibitors Opdivo and Yervoy. Publicly, Bavarian Nordic has not given up hope that the cancer vaccine can complement these drugs.  acupuncture Bristol“While this is certainly not the desired outcome, we remain steadfast believers in the power of combination treatments, including immunotherapies, to transform the future of cancer therapies,” Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin said in a statement.  ClinicalTrials.gov lists one trial that is testing Prostvac in combination with Yervoy. Another study is trialing Prostvac on top of one or both of Opdivo and Yervoy. Neither study is due to deliver data until late 2019. That suggests Prostvac may continue stumbling forward for years to come, adding to an already prolonged clinical development program.

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