Etubics Corporation Partners with the National Cancer Institute to Further Develop Therapeutic Cancer Vaccines
SEATTLE – (June 23, 2015) - Etubics Corporation, a privately held clinical stage biotechnology company, announced today that it has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), an Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The parties will work together to further develop the Etubics Platform, which is employed to develop novel immunotherapeutic product candidates to treat cancer. Under the CRADA, the NCI and Etubics will collaborate on the preclinical and clinical development of a multi-targeted carcinoma immunotherapy.
Etubics will be working with Dr. Jeffrey Schlom, Chief of the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at the NCI, and his team to expand the clinical development of the Etubics ETBX-011 immunotherapeutic for cancer by inserting two additional cancer targets to the ETBX-011 backbone, making a total of three targets in one delivery system. One of the added targets is designed to prevent and/or target cancer metastasis while the second target is expressed in multiple human tumor types. ETBX-011 was recently reported to provide colon and rectum cancer patients with beyond-predicted overall survival in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial.
“We look forward to combining our expertise with the NCI to create a multipronged immune stimulatory treatment approach to cancer that we believe will allow a patient’s immune system to create a memory type response, similar to an influenza vaccine, thus prolonging the lives of cancer patients,” said Gerald L. Messerschmidt, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Etubics Corporation. “Etubics is committed to developing the safest, most efficient and most effective cancer immunotherapies that break the tolerance to cancer in patients.”
“This CRADA is a significant milestone in the development process of the Etubics Platform for various cancers and will hopefully offer a first of its kind multi-targeted paradigm for immunotherapy of cancer patients,” said Dr. Frank R. Jones, Etubics Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We are pleased that Dr. Schlom and his world renowned cancer immunotherapy team have partnered with Etubics to perform this pioneering multi-target series of studies. This partnership explores, and hopefully verifies, that multiple cancer targets are additive and synergistic to combat cancer.”
Etubics will manufacture the immunotherapeutic product candidates for use in the studies, and the NCI will conduct Phase 1 and 2 clinical studies, with the potential to be involved in randomized Phase 3 studies. Etubics and the NCI will continue to perform preclinical studies to evaluate additional cancer targets to activate T cells against certain cancers and evaluate the immune responses of the patients treated under the CRADA.
Preclinical and clinical trials of ETBX-011 were supported in part by NCI grants to Etubics Corporation: 1R43CA134063-01; 2R44CA134063-02 and NCI contract HHSN261200900059C, and HHSN251201100097C
About Etubics Corporation
Etubics Corporation, based in Seattle, WA., is the 3rd generation clinical stage bio-pharmaceutical company, which has developed a proprietary 3rd generation gene delivery platform technology consisting of a genetically engineered adenovirus vector delivery system and a manufacturing E.C7 human cell line, collectively the Etubics Platform. Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials to date show that the Etubics Platform overcomes challenges associated with all other viruses including prior generation adenoviruses. The Company’s gene delivery platform can be used to efficiently and rapidly develop immunotherapeutic drugs and preventive vaccines for a wide range of cancers, infectious diseases and other chronic illnesses associated with genetic abortions. For more information, visit www.etubics.com.
Forward look statements:
Statements herein relating to future financial, business performance, conditions or strategies and other financial and business matters, including expectations regarding future revenues and operating expenses, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Etubics is a private company. Etubics cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties which change over time. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward looking statements or historical experience include risks and uncertainties, including the failure by Etubics to secure and maintain relationships with collaborators; risks relating to the early state of Etubics’s product candidates under development; uncertainties relating to clinical trials and regulatory requirements and actions; risks relating to the commercialization, if any, of Etubics proposed product candidates; competitive risks to marketed products; dependence on the efforts of third parties; dependence on intellectual property; and risks that it may lack the financial resources and access to capital to fund its operations. Further information on the factors and risks that could affect Etubics’s offices, business, financial conditions and results of operations, are contained in Etubics’s documents on file at the Company. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and Etubics assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.
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Richmond Public Relations / 206-682-6979
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