SAN DIEGO, Aug. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- MabVax Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held immunotherapeutics discovery and development company focused on the development and commercialization of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, today announced the completion of two separate licensing agreements with the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research (SKI).
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The first license agreement grants MabVax exclusive development and commercialization rights to multiple vaccines against recurrent cancer for six different types of cancer. MSKCC plans to initiate Phase I clinical trials in each of these types of cancer this year or early next year. Upon successful demonstration of immunogenicity and tolerability in the Phase I trials in sarcoma and small cell lung cancer, MabVax will initiate Phase II trials in these two cancer types. In addition to MabVax’s efforts, MSKCC is planning to conduct Phase II trials with the licensed vaccines in ovarian and breast cancer. Pending successful outcomes, MabVax can assume responsibility for continued development and eventual commercialization of these vaccines.
The second license agreement grants MabVax exclusive rights to the use of the licensed vaccines and lymphocytes from successfully vaccinated clinical trial participants. MabVax plans to rescue antibodies from these patient samples to create a pipeline of fully human monoclonal antibody products against each of the vaccine targets expressed on the surface of the cancer cells. By rescuing antibodies from a selection of patients who generate a useful immune response, MabVax can select the optimal antibodies and develop them as either stand alone products or as combination products with the vaccines. MabVax has established a laboratory and office in the San Diego area to launch this effort.
“The completion of these two agreements establishes the scientific foundation of the company and firmly set us on a research and development pathway that we hope will address a significant unmet medical need by preventing recurrence in certain types of cancers and prolonging patient survival,” said David Hansen, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Philip Livingston, M.D., the company’s Chief Science Officer and co-founder of MabVax added, “Targeting residual circulating cancer cells and micrometastasis with passively administered or vaccine induced antibodies against multiple targets is an approach well suited to eradicating the cancer cells that cause metastatic disease. Our clinical trials over the next several years will tell us a great deal about the utility of this approach to treating cancer.”
About MabVax Therapeutics, Inc.
MabVax was formed to commercialize the work of Dr. Phil Livingston and colleagues at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) who over the last 25 years have developed monovalent cancer vaccines against ten distinct antigenic targets on various types of cancer cells. These vaccines target gangliosides and other carbohydrate antigens that are the most extensively expressed antigenic targets on the cell surface of certain cancers. Vaccines, or passively administered antibodies developed from these vaccines, produced evidence demonstrating the prevention of tumor recurrence and prolonged survival in preclinical models and supporting data in early Phase I human clinical trials. The company is initially focused on developing polyvalent vaccines and a pipeline of fully human monoclonal antibodies to address a variety of cancers including sarcoma, small cell lung cancer, and melanoma. MabVax closed a Series A venture financing with GBP Capital in late February 2008.
CONTACT: David Hansen, President and CEO of MabVax Therapeutics, Inc.,
+1-858-259-9405, dhansen@mabvax.com
Web site: http://www.mabvax.com/
