Dendreon's Provenge Finally Makes the Big Time

Well, Dendreon has finally gotten their place in the sun in the form of an AP article and it has been a long time coming.

Doctors have been trying to develop such a therapy for decades, and Provenge is the first to win approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

"The big news here is that this is the first immunotherapy to win approval, and I suspect within five to ten years immunotherapies will be a big part of cancer therapy in general," said Dr. Phil Kantoff, an oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who helped run the studies of Provenge.

Experimental vaccines to treat other cancers — including the deadly skin disease melanoma and an often fatal childhood tumor called neuroblastoma — are already in late-stage development.

Well, I have held this stock since 2007 and this is quite a payoff. I read about how this thing worked way back when and I think that it has been a travesty that the FDA didn't approve this thing earlier. It just showed that the Bush-run FDA was no place for breakthrough therapies while the Obama-FDA is the opposite. I ding Obama a lot but he is more pro-science when it comes to things like this then Bush ever was.

In any case this Provenge is kind of a difficult therapy to get running because each treatment has to be tailored to the individual. But once that happens it actually extends the persons life and might lead to newer therapies down the line. It would be interesting to see how this therapy can be combined with things like DNA injections that kill cancer cells.

The idea that you are getting the persons own immune system to attack the cancer is something out of SciFi. That was part of why I invested in them even when the stock dropped into the $1 range and kept with them until now. It is good to see them finally get their due and to see another weapon in the armory in the fight against cancer.