TORONTO, June 11 /PRNewswire/ - Viventia Biotech Inc., a privately held biopharmaceutical company advancing a portfolio of novel antibody products for the treatment of cancer, today announced it has initiated patient dosing for its Phase I clinical trial of VB6-845. Designed for systemic use against metastatic cancers, VB6-845 is a humanized antibody fragment targeting EpCAM fused with the Company’s proprietary deimmunized form of the cytotoxic protein Bouganin.
The Phase I dose-escalation trial will enroll 40-50 patients with advanced epithelial cancers that are EpCAM positive and is designed to establish the safety and preliminary efficacy of this novel cytotoxic conjugate. The study will be conducted as a solid tumors “all comers” trial, so that accrual can be expedited and a range of responses obtained.
“Our unique approach to creating cancer drugs has yielded a novel antibody-based therapeutic with the potential to be safer than traditional cancer treatments while attacking cancers in their most lethal form, once they have metastasized,” said Dr. Nick Glover, President and CEO of Viventia Biotech. “We look forward to advancing this Phase I trial and evaluating the safety and early efficacy results expected later this year.”
VB6-845 has demonstrated effective cancer cell killing properties in pre-clinical tests. A full array of animal efficacy studies and safety studies of VB6-845 for the treatment of ovarian cancer and other solid tumors has been completed. In animal xenograft studies, VB6-845 elicited 100% complete cures of established ovarian tumors. VB6-845 has been shown to be safely tolerated in both primate and rodent animal safety studies.
Viventia is expanding its late-stage pipeline with additional novel anti-cancer therapeutics consisting of human antibodies obtained from its proprietary antibody generation platform Hybridomics(TM) conjugated to its proprietary cytotoxic protein Bouganin. Viventia retains full global product rights to all of its drug candidates and technology platforms. The Company’s business development efforts are focused on identifying and selecting a partner capable of complementing Viventia’s development expertise with global sales, marketing and commercialization capabilities.
About Bouganin
Originally isolated from the Amazonian tropical shrub, Bougainvillea spectabilis, Bouganin is a novel ribosome inactivating protein from an emerging class of novel anti-cancer and anti-viral agents isolated from various plant species. Bouganin has a benign safety profile against normal, healthy cells, but has potent anti-cancer activity against many types of epithelial tumors. Viventia has further maximized the therapeutic potential of this promising cytotoxic protein through deimmunization, a method that renders the plant protein invisible to the immune system, thus facilitating systemic, multi-dose therapeutic strategies. Bouganin is being developed by Viventia Biotech as a key component in its anti-metastatic cancer program.
About Viventia Biotech:
Viventia Biotech Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing Armed Antibodies(TM), powerful and precise anti-cancer drugs that combine cytotoxic protein payloads with the highly precise tumor-targeting characteristics of monoclonal antibodies to overcome various forms of cancer. Viventia’s lead product, Proxinium(TM), is undergoing a global Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of head and neck cancer. Viventia is also developing Vicinium (TM), which is undergoing a Phase II clinical study for the treatment of bladder cancer. The Company has created a portfolio of follow-on antibody-based drug candidates and has a discovery engine to provide a rich and sustainable long-term pipeline.
Viventia Biotech Inc.
CONTACT: James Smith, Tel. (416) 815-0700 x 229, Fax. (416) 815-0080,Email: jsmith@viventia.com; www.viventia.com; www.proxinium.com
