Anixa Biosciences, Inc. announced that it has entered into a joint development agreement with Cleveland Clinic to develop novel vaccines for various cancer types. Cleveland Clinic is currently conducting a Phase 1 clinical trial targeting triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), the most aggressive and lethal form of breast cancer, and an ovarian cancer vaccine is in pre-clinical development in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute.
The vaccines focus on a novel scientific mechanism never used before in a cancer vaccine. By developing vaccines that immunize against “retired” proteins found to be expressed in specific forms of cancer, the researchers are investigating if certain cancer cells can be destroyed as they arise, and ultimately prevent tumors from forming. The vaccines were developed at Cleveland Clinic and licensed to Anixa Biosciences. Cleveland Clinic is entitled to royalties and other commercialization revenues from the Company.
The research under this new JDA will be led at Cleveland Clinic by Thaddeus Stappenbeck, MD, PhD, Department Chair of Inflammation and Immunity, and will include Justin Johnson, PhD, one of the co-inventors of the breast and ovarian cancer vaccines along with the late Vincent Tuohy, PhD.
Anixa Chairman and CEO Dr. Amit Kumar stated, “Cleveland Clinic is a valued partner to Anixa in the development of both breast and ovarian cancer vaccines. The progress we’ve made to date in the breast cancer vaccine program, including promising preliminary data, drives our confidence in pursuing research and development for additional vaccines and cancer types using the same technology platform. Assuming the breast cancer clinical studies continue to exhibit positive results, we believe the search for ‘retired’ protein antigens will be pursued by many cancer researchers. We are seeking to maintain our lead in this potentially game-changing arena of cancer research.”
“We look forward to expanding our relationship with Anixa in this endeavor,” said Dr. Stappenbeck. “As we begin the discovery effort to evaluate which cancer types will be best for targeting, we hope to address many intractable cancers, including high incidence malignancies in the lung, colon, and prostate.”