Lytix Biopharma And KAEL-GemVax Announce Joint Clinical Trial To Combine LTX-315 And GV1001 Cancer Immunotherapy

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Clinical Trials / Drug Trials;  Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Article Date: 20 Jun 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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The Norwegian biopharmaceutical company Lytix Biopharma and Korean company KAEL-GemVax announced the signing of a collaborative agreement to test lead compounds LTX-315 and GV1001 as a combination therapy for the treatment of cancer.

According to Lytix Biopharma CEO Gunnar Saelid and KAEL-GemVax CEO Jay Sangjae Kim, "We are delighted to announce this joint venture to test a combination of two very interesting experimental drugs. In preclinical models, LTX-315 has demonstrated the ability to effect necrotic killing of cancer cells. Simulatenously it also causes the release of warning signals from the stressed and dying cells that trigger activation of the immune system. On the other hand GV1001, a telomerase peptide vaccine in phase III trials, is one of the best documented anti-cancer vaccines currently in development, with a potentially broad utility against a range of cancer types.

"There is a strong scientific rationale for combining these agents, providing a local inflammatory response combined with specific vaccination - these two novel agents should have the potential to function as an efficient immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer," says Mr Jon Amund Eriksen, Director of Product Development, Oncology at Lytix Biopharma. Mr Eriksen is also one of the key persons, together with Professor Gustav Gaudernack, at the Norwegian Radium Hospital involved in the development of GV1001.

Speaking on behalf of their respective companies, business development spokespeople Anders Fugelli (Lytix Biopharma) and Michelle Kyunghee Kim (KAEL-GemVax) comment, "KAEL-GemVax and Lytix Biopharma will both contribute scientific and regulatory, as well as financial, support to the planned study in patients, sharing the results for use in the future clinical development programs for each proprietary agent. Lytix Biopharma will be responsible for the design, set-up and conduct of the clinical study, which will run at the University Hospital of Northern Norway in Tromso. No further business commitments have been made at this stage."

The clinical phase I study will document the utility of LTX-315 as an immune stimulator in patients vaccinated with GV1001, a vaccine directed against the catalytic subunit of human telomerase. Telomerase is a universal tumour antigen expressed in 85-90% of cancer tissues.

Source: Lytix Biopharma AS