Transgene Transformation

In late 2004, Transgene S.A. (Euronext:TNG) brought in Philippe Archinard as CEO to refocus the immunotherapy company. Moving products through the clinic has taken far longer than he initially projected - he had hoped to have three products in Phase III trials by YE07 - but management's efforts appear to be finally paying off (see BioCentury, June 20, 2005).

Last week, Transgene completed a E152 million ($194.1 million) rights offering in part to fund a pivotal trial of lead candidate TG4010 (MVA-MUC1-IL2) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In March, Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) paid $10 million for an option to TG4010 for multiple cancers following the Phase IIb portion of the trial. The compound is an attenuated Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) virus vector encoding the Muc1 tumor-associated antigen and IL-2 genes...