Lund, Sweden – 15 March 2016 – BioInvent International (BINV) and Oncurious NV today announce that the companies have signed a partnership with the Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC). Accessing the NMRTC network of specialist clinicians will serve to accelerate the enrollment of patients to the planned phase I/IIa trial of TB-403 in pediatric patients with rare but life threatening cancers; medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma, and Ewing’s sarcoma. Final preparations to enable opening the study for enrollment is ongoing.
NMTRC is a collaboration of 25 US academic medical centers, teaching hospitals and other entities, with the purpose of facilitating and conducting collaborative research activities and investigations of new treatments for neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma and other pediatric cancers. NMTRC is headquartered at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, MI, USA.
The partnership with NMTRC is a last step in the preparative work by BioInvent and Oncurious, before initiating their joint Phase I/IIa clinical program with TB-403.
TB-403 is a humanized monoclonal antibody against placental growth factor (PlGF). PlGF is expressed in several types of cancer, including medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma, and Ewings sarcoma. High expression of the PlGF receptor neuropilin 1 has been shown to correlate with poor overall survival in medulloblastoma.
A scientific paper in Cell in February 2013 (Cell, 152, 1065-76, 2013), highlighted for the first time that PlGF plays a vital role in the brain and that its expression is required for the growth and spread of medulloblastoma. The paper was based on pre-clinical research conducted by Prof Rakesh Jain from the Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard (Boston) and the team of Prof Peter Carmeliet from VIB/ KU Leuven.
Michael Oredsson, CEO of BioInvent comments: “The collaboration with NMTRC and its investigator network brings a wealth of experience in the paediatric oncology field into this project, and takes us one important step closer to potentially providing a new, targeted treatment option for a group of patients with a tremendous unmet medical need.”
Patrik De Haes, MD, Executive Chairman of Oncurious nv comments: “This agreement with NMTRC will give Oncurious and BioInvent access to a significant number of centers with considerable expertise in treating children with medulloblastoma. The broad NMTRC clinical network will be a major positive as we set out to develop TB-403 as a novel improved treatment for children with medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma and Ewings sarcoma.”
To the editors:
About BioInvent
BioInvent International AB develops immune oncology drugs. With one of the world’s largest antibody libraries, and a unique, proprietary discovery method, BioInvent can identify the optimal cellular targets and antibodies for the treatment of various tumor types. BioInvent has also considerable experience in and a facility for process development and production of antibodies for clinical studies. This makes it possible to develop proprietary drug projects, but also to supply leading international pharmaceutical companies with effective tools for their drug development. BioInvent currently has three proprietary projects in or close to clinical development and partnership agreements with seven global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. More information is available at www.bioinvent.com.
About the NMTRC
The Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC) is a group of 25 universities and children’s hospitals headquartered at the Helen Devos Children’s Hospital, Grand Rapids. MI, USA that offer a nationwide network of childhood cancer clinical trials. These trials are based on the research from a group of closely collaborating investigators who are linked with laboratory programs developing novel therapies for high-risk neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma.
NMTRC’s mission is to create a national collaborative effort of researchers, oncologists and family advocates to bring forward new therapies for children with relapsed neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma with the goal of improving the quality of life and survival of children with neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma. More information on NMTRC can be found at: http://nmtrc.org/
About Oncurious NV
Oncurious NV is an oncology company focused on the development of innovative medicines for the treatment of pediatric cancers. Oncurious is a venture between ThromboGenics and VIB, a leading life science research institute in Flanders, Belgium.
Oncurious plans to initiate a Phase I/IIa clinical program with TB-403 for the treatment of medulloblastoma, a rare, life-threatening brain tumor that mainly affects children. BioInvent is a co-development partner for the planned Phase I/IIa TB-403 clinical trial. More information on Oncurious NV can be found at www.oncurious.com
For further information, please contact:
Michael Oredsson
President and CEO
+46 (0)46 286 85 67
+46 (0)70716 89 30
michael.oredsson@bioinvent.com
BioInvent International AB (publ)
Co. reg. No: 556537-7263
Visiting address: Sölvegatan 41
Mailing address: 223 70 LUND
Phone: +46(0)46 286 85 50
info@bioinvent.com
www.bioinvent.com
The press release contains statements about the future, consisting of subjective assumptions and forecasts for future scenarios. Predictions for the future only apply as the date they are made and are, by their very nature, in the same way as research and development work in the biotech segment, associated with risk and uncertainty. With this in mind, the actual outcome may deviate significantly from the scenarios described in this press release.
Information disclosed in this press release is provided herein pursuant to the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for publication at 7.00 a.m. CET, on 15 March, 2016.
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