DCprime

About DCprime

DCprime B.V. was a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of cancer relapse vaccines. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Leiden, Netherlands, the company operated in the immuno-oncology market. DCprime's business model revolved around its proprietary DCOne® technology platform, designed to create off-the-shelf, allogeneic dendritic cell-based therapies. These vaccines aimed to prevent or delay disease recurrence by stimulating a patient's immune system to recognize and attack tumor cells.

The company's core product, DCP-001, is a whole-cell-based vaccine developed for blood cancers, particularly Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), which showed promising results in early clinical trials. The DCOne® platform utilizes a human myeloid leukemia cell line that can be differentiated into dendritic cells, which naturally express a broad range of tumor-associated antigens. This approach allows for scalable manufacturing and provides the logistical benefits of a standardized, off-the-shelf product, in contrast to patient-specific dendritic cell vaccines. The company's strategy also included extending its vaccine applications to solid tumors and exploring combinations with other immuno-oncology treatments.

A significant milestone in the company's history was the strategic investment from Van Herk Investments in 2014, which provided crucial funding for the continued development of the DCOne® platform. Dr. Ada Kruisbeek, the founder of DCprime, initially served as both CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, later transitioning to focus solely on the scientific development as CSO. In a transformative event, DCprime was acquired by the Swedish biopharmaceutical company Immunicum AB (publ) in a deal that was completed on December 21, 2020. The acquisition was structured as a business combination to merge the complementary dendritic cell biology expertise of both companies, creating a more robust pipeline in cell-based cancer immunotherapies. Following the merger, Immunicum continued to advance the development of DCP-001 and in May 2022, rebranded to Mendus AB to reflect its maturing clinical pipeline and focus on cancer recurrence.