UbiVac Opens Trial of Next Generation Lung Cancer Vaccine

SYDNEY, Nov. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- UbiVac, a clinical stage cancer immunotherapy company based in Portland, OR, announced the results of a Phase I clinical trial and the initiation of a Phase II clinical trial of its first-in-class autophagosome DRibble vaccine, DPV-001, in two presentations at the 15^th World Conference for Lung Cancer, in Sydney, from October 27-30. The multicenter, randomized Phase II clinical trial of DPV-001 is supported by a US$3.4 million National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant and will involve 48 individuals with definitively treated stage IIIA/B non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A description of DPV-001, an "off-the-shelf vaccine," was presented by Dr. Helen Ross, Mayo Clinic Arizona, in an oral session (abstract #O-08.01). This next generation vaccine contains a system for targeting to dendritic cells, at least 9 cancer antigens prioritized by an NCI advisory panel and 5 toll-like receptor agonists to boost immunity. "Patients with locally advanced lung cancer still have a very high risk of cancer returning despite our most aggressive treatments," said Dr. Rachel Sanborn, the trial's principal investigator and the Co-Director of Thoracic Oncology, Providence Cancer Center, Portland, Oregon. "This novel vaccine approach may help the immune system recognize and fight remaining cancer cells." In a presentation of the Phase 1 trial in patients with Stage IV NSCLC, the authors reported that immune responses were detected in a majority of the evaluable patients (abstract # P-3.11-032).

"UbiVac is excited to pioneer this first-in-class vaccine technology to patients with NSCLC," said Dr. Hong-Ming Hu, inventor of autophagosome DRibble technology, Co-founder and CSO of UbiVac. "In addition to lung cancer, UbiVac is actively pursuing the application of this technology, with our partners and collaborators, for the treatment of head and neck, hepatocellular, prostate, colon and breast cancer."

UbiVac, spun-out from the Providence Health System in 2005, recently was judged by Oregon CEOs as the top "Presenting Company" at the Oregon Bioscience Association annual meeting has three vaccine platform technologies under development: DRibbles, a nanotechnology platform and a disabled cytomegalovirus (CMV) vector platform.

The ongoing activities reported in this release are supported by the NCI of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers R44CA121612 and U43CA165048. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NCI or the National Institutes of Health.

SOURCE UbiVac