[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]  Andrew Caravello, DO [@andrewcaravello](/creator/twitter/andrewcaravello) on x 1095 followers Created: 2025-06-29 19:37:15 UTC $NWBO 🧠Why the XX Billion Dollar Merck and Daiichi Deal Might Be Just the Beginning of Something Much Larger: #DCVax In 2023, Merck paid XX billion dollars to co-develop three antibody drug conjugates from Daiichi Sankyo. That included X billion upfront, XXX billion in options, and the rest tied to milestones. The message was clear. Merck was assembling a next-generation cancer stack. But despite its size, that deal did not include the most important layer, the adaptive immune intelligence that tells you what to target in the first place. That layer is DCVax. 🎯 What ADCs Are Designed to Do, and Where They Break Down Antibody drug conjugates are built around a single assumption. You identify a surface protein that is overexpressed in cancer. You design an antibody to bind to it. You link that antibody to a toxin. The antibody enters the tumor cell and delivers the payload. That is how Daiichi Sankyo’s ADCs (HER3-DXd, CDH6-DXd, B7-H3-DXd) were built. But this architecture is fragile. If the tumor mutates or downregulates that one protein, the therapy fails. If expression is patchy or context-dependent, targeting fails. And if the antigen was mischosen to begin with, the ADC becomes a wasted payload. That is the limitation of fixed targeting. Daiichi’s ADCs are based on static assumptions. DCVax is built for biological truth. 🧬 DCVax Trains the Immune System to Understand the Tumor DCVax begins with the patient’s own tumor. The full lysate is extracted, surface markers, escape variants, secreted proteins, and neoantigens. Dendritic cells are taken from the patient’s blood, exposed to the lysate, and reinfused. These dendritic cells teach the immune system what to look for. There is no guesswork. If HER2 or EGFRvIII is in the tumor, it becomes part of the training. If the tumor evolves, DCVax can evolve with it, because it is based on what the tumor actually produced. DCVax creates a polyclonal immune response involving CD8 and CD4 T cells, NK cells, and monocytes. It creates memory. It creates surveillance. It creates fluency. 🌫️ Why Most Therapies Fail in Glioblastoma, and Why DCVax Does Not In 2025, a study in Nature used spatial transcriptomics to map the glioblastoma tumor microenvironment. It revealed a landscape designed to resist immunity. Myeloid suppressor cells were everywhere. T cells were exhausted before they ever entered. The tumor blocked infiltration, disabled antigen-presenting cells, and created immune exclusion zones. Checkpoint inhibitors fail in GBM not because the targets are wrong, but because the immune system is never activated in the first place. DCVax bypasses this. It trains the immune system away from the tumor, then sends in memory-trained cells that already know what to attack. 📊 The Nature Communications Study: Not the First to Show Survival, But the First to Explain It DCVax had already demonstrated survival benefit in glioblastoma. The Phase X trial published in JAMA Oncology proved it. Patients lived longer, both in newly diagnosed and recurrent disease, compared to matched controls. But in 2024, a new trial published in Nature Communications showed what had never been seen before, the immunological blueprint behind that survival. Patients treated with DCVax plus poly ICLC showed: ✅ Activation of systemic interferon pathways ✅ Downregulation of exhaustion markers like CD38 and CD39 ✅ Expansion of monocytes and memory T cells ✅ Direct correlation between interferon gene signatures and overall survival ✅ Multiple Grade X patients surviving beyond XX years This was immune reprogramming in humans, measured and mapped at the single-cell level. This was biology working. 🧠DCVax Does What Daiichi’s ADC Model Cannot This is where the difference becomes structural. Daiichi’s ADC targets are chosen based on expression databases. Researchers select HER3, CDH6, or B7-H3 because they appear elevated in tumors. Then they build an antibody, attach a toxin, and hope that the expression holds long enough to matter. But DCVax takes no such gamble. It begins with real tumor biology. It trains the immune system on what the tumor actually expressed, and then watches in real time to see what worked. Using technologies like CyTOF and single-cell RNA sequencing, DCVax enables researchers to track: Which antigens triggered interferon signaling Which expanded T cell memory Which correlated with long-term survival If those antigens are surface-accessible and tumor specific, they become validated ADC targets. Not theoretical ones. Proven ones. Not from prediction. From patient data. DCVax is not just a treatment. It is a biologically grounded target discovery platform. Merck paid XX billion dollars for delivery systems. DCVax is the system that tells you where to deliver, what to deliver, and why it will matter. 🧱 Where DCVax Stands Now DCVax has been submitted to the UK’s MHRA. The legal framework to approve it already exists through SI 2025, which supports Personally Individualised Cancer Vaccines. The IFR access path is live. Flaskworks automation is complete and ready to activate. This is not a therapy. This is a distributed, modular immune platform. A franchise model for personalized oncology. Each node delivers both treatment and data. Each patient adds to the map. 💡 In structure and function, DCVax begins to look like something more, the $AMZN AWS of immunotherapy. A decentralized backbone that enables other therapies to be built, scaled, and customized on top of it. Where each node is not just a manufacturing site, but an immune intelligence hub, feeding real-time data into a global map of tumor antigen behavior and immune response. 💰 The Merck Question Merck’s deal with Daiichi was a bet on delivery platforms, antibodies engineered to hit static, preselected targets. But those targets are fixed. Tumors evolve. DCVax does not just complement that strategy. It completes it. If Merck wants to transform its current oncology stack into something adaptive, intelligent, and future-proof, it will need the system that identifies what matters and proves what works. That system is DCVax. But DCVax is not a therapy you slot in. It is an active platform, a living map of immune relevance, delivered through personalized manufacturing, validated in real patients, and extensible across indications. If Merck wants access, it may license. If it wants control, it must commit to the platform itself. Because DCVax is not a product. It is the missing core of the immune architecture Merck is building. 💥 Why This Surpasses the XX Billion Dollar Daiichi Deal Daiichi’s ADCs are built on the past. They deliver toxins to targets that may or may not be present tomorrow. DCVax is built on the present and the future. It identifies what is real. It trains immunity that persists. It reveals the tumor’s secrets, then makes them actionable. It is both compass and memory. Treatment and surveillance. Immune education and antigen intelligence. Merck bought the missiles. DCVax is the network. ⏳ The Window Is Open DCVax has shown survival benefit. It has revealed its mechanism. It has a regulatory path. It has a scalable manufacturing solution. It has the ability to generate the next generation of ADC targets, not in theory, but in patients. If $MRK, or anyone else, wants to own the next immune operating system, this is their moment. Because DCVax is not another tool. It is the map. XXXXX engagements  **Related Topics** [$6417t](/topic/$6417t) [$4568t](/topic/$4568t) [$8750t](/topic/$8750t) [money](/topic/money) [$nwbo](/topic/$nwbo) [$mrk](/topic/$mrk) [stocks healthcare](/topic/stocks-healthcare) [Post Link](https://x.com/andrewcaravello/status/1939407838914220049)
[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]
Andrew Caravello, DO @andrewcaravello on x 1095 followers
Created: 2025-06-29 19:37:15 UTC
$NWBO 🧠Why the XX Billion Dollar Merck and Daiichi Deal Might Be Just the Beginning of Something Much Larger: #DCVax
In 2023, Merck paid XX billion dollars to co-develop three antibody drug conjugates from Daiichi Sankyo. That included X billion upfront, XXX billion in options, and the rest tied to milestones. The message was clear. Merck was assembling a next-generation cancer stack. But despite its size, that deal did not include the most important layer, the adaptive immune intelligence that tells you what to target in the first place.
That layer is DCVax.
🎯 What ADCs Are Designed to Do, and Where They Break Down
Antibody drug conjugates are built around a single assumption. You identify a surface protein that is overexpressed in cancer. You design an antibody to bind to it. You link that antibody to a toxin. The antibody enters the tumor cell and delivers the payload.
That is how Daiichi Sankyo’s ADCs (HER3-DXd, CDH6-DXd, B7-H3-DXd) were built.
But this architecture is fragile. If the tumor mutates or downregulates that one protein, the therapy fails. If expression is patchy or context-dependent, targeting fails. And if the antigen was mischosen to begin with, the ADC becomes a wasted payload.
That is the limitation of fixed targeting. Daiichi’s ADCs are based on static assumptions.
DCVax is built for biological truth.
🧬 DCVax Trains the Immune System to Understand the Tumor
DCVax begins with the patient’s own tumor. The full lysate is extracted, surface markers, escape variants, secreted proteins, and neoantigens. Dendritic cells are taken from the patient’s blood, exposed to the lysate, and reinfused.
These dendritic cells teach the immune system what to look for. There is no guesswork. If HER2 or EGFRvIII is in the tumor, it becomes part of the training. If the tumor evolves, DCVax can evolve with it, because it is based on what the tumor actually produced.
DCVax creates a polyclonal immune response involving CD8 and CD4 T cells, NK cells, and monocytes. It creates memory. It creates surveillance. It creates fluency.
🌫️ Why Most Therapies Fail in Glioblastoma, and Why DCVax Does Not
In 2025, a study in Nature used spatial transcriptomics to map the glioblastoma tumor microenvironment. It revealed a landscape designed to resist immunity. Myeloid suppressor cells were everywhere. T cells were exhausted before they ever entered. The tumor blocked infiltration, disabled antigen-presenting cells, and created immune exclusion zones.
Checkpoint inhibitors fail in GBM not because the targets are wrong, but because the immune system is never activated in the first place.
DCVax bypasses this. It trains the immune system away from the tumor, then sends in memory-trained cells that already know what to attack.
đź“Š The Nature Communications Study: Not the First to Show Survival, But the First to Explain It
DCVax had already demonstrated survival benefit in glioblastoma. The Phase X trial published in JAMA Oncology proved it. Patients lived longer, both in newly diagnosed and recurrent disease, compared to matched controls.
But in 2024, a new trial published in Nature Communications showed what had never been seen before, the immunological blueprint behind that survival.
Patients treated with DCVax plus poly ICLC showed:
âś… Activation of systemic interferon pathways
âś… Downregulation of exhaustion markers like CD38 and CD39
âś… Expansion of monocytes and memory T cells
âś… Direct correlation between interferon gene signatures and overall survival
âś… Multiple Grade X patients surviving beyond XX years
This was immune reprogramming in humans, measured and mapped at the single-cell level. This was biology working.
🧠DCVax Does What Daiichi’s ADC Model Cannot
This is where the difference becomes structural.
Daiichi’s ADC targets are chosen based on expression databases. Researchers select HER3, CDH6, or B7-H3 because they appear elevated in tumors. Then they build an antibody, attach a toxin, and hope that the expression holds long enough to matter.
But DCVax takes no such gamble. It begins with real tumor biology. It trains the immune system on what the tumor actually expressed, and then watches in real time to see what worked.
Using technologies like CyTOF and single-cell RNA sequencing, DCVax enables researchers to track:
Which antigens triggered interferon signaling
Which expanded T cell memory
Which correlated with long-term survival
If those antigens are surface-accessible and tumor specific, they become validated ADC targets. Not theoretical ones. Proven ones. Not from prediction. From patient data.
DCVax is not just a treatment. It is a biologically grounded target discovery platform.
Merck paid XX billion dollars for delivery systems. DCVax is the system that tells you where to deliver, what to deliver, and why it will matter.
🧱 Where DCVax Stands Now
DCVax has been submitted to the UK’s MHRA. The legal framework to approve it already exists through SI 2025, which supports Personally Individualised Cancer Vaccines. The IFR access path is live. Flaskworks automation is complete and ready to activate.
This is not a therapy. This is a distributed, modular immune platform. A franchise model for personalized oncology. Each node delivers both treatment and data. Each patient adds to the map.
đź’ˇ In structure and function, DCVax begins to look like something more, the $AMZN AWS of immunotherapy. A decentralized backbone that enables other therapies to be built, scaled, and customized on top of it. Where each node is not just a manufacturing site, but an immune intelligence hub, feeding real-time data into a global map of tumor antigen behavior and immune response.
đź’° The Merck Question
Merck’s deal with Daiichi was a bet on delivery platforms, antibodies engineered to hit static, preselected targets. But those targets are fixed. Tumors evolve. DCVax does not just complement that strategy. It completes it.
If Merck wants to transform its current oncology stack into something adaptive, intelligent, and future-proof, it will need the system that identifies what matters and proves what works. That system is DCVax.
But DCVax is not a therapy you slot in. It is an active platform, a living map of immune relevance, delivered through personalized manufacturing, validated in real patients, and extensible across indications.
If Merck wants access, it may license.
If it wants control, it must commit to the platform itself.
Because DCVax is not a product.
It is the missing core of the immune architecture Merck is building.
đź’Ą Why This Surpasses the XX Billion Dollar Daiichi Deal
Daiichi’s ADCs are built on the past. They deliver toxins to targets that may or may not be present tomorrow.
DCVax is built on the present and the future.
It identifies what is real. It trains immunity that persists. It reveals the tumor’s secrets, then makes them actionable.
It is both compass and memory. Treatment and surveillance. Immune education and antigen intelligence.
Merck bought the missiles. DCVax is the network.
⏳ The Window Is Open
DCVax has shown survival benefit. It has revealed its mechanism. It has a regulatory path. It has a scalable manufacturing solution. It has the ability to generate the next generation of ADC targets, not in theory, but in patients.
If $MRK, or anyone else, wants to own the next immune operating system, this is their moment.
Because DCVax is not another tool.
It is the map.
XXXXX engagements
Related Topics $6417t $4568t $8750t money $nwbo $mrk stocks healthcare