Transgene announced today that Novartis has bought an option over its lung cancer vaccine for €10m upfront, terms that unsurprisingly disappointed many observers; a full licensing deal has been heavily trailed for some time helping the company’s shares to advance 69% in the last 12 months. However, viewed in the cold light of day, were expectations around this deal just too high?

Aside from Dendreon - currently boasting a hefty market cap of $4.75bn indicating that investors are convinced its prostate cancer immunotherapy, Provenge, is a dead cert for approval and commercial triumph - the cancer vaccine field remains noticeably bereft of real success stories. Very few big pharma toes have been dipped into the water, particularly in terms of in-licensed products, and knock-out phase III data is hardly commonplace. Transgene might be guilty of over enthusiastically fanning the flames of expectation, but it is debatable whether better terms could have been extracted at this point, without giving away too much of TG 4010’s potential value.