TSX Venture: QPT
EDMONTON, July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - Quest PharmaTech
Inc. (TSX-V: QPT) ("Quest" or the "Company"), a pharmaceutical
company developing and commercializing products for the treatment
of cancer, announces that it has hosted and completed a clinical
investigators meeting in Rome,
Italy with all of the Italian investigators participating in
the ongoing, international Phase II oregovomab clinical trial for
advanced ovarian cancer patients. The clinical meeting provided a
venue for all of the investigators to share their clinical
experiences and to resolve any outstanding operational issues for
the oregovomab clinical trial. More than 15 patients have been
enrolled in the 80 patient clinical trial so far.
The current oregovomab clinical trial is a
randomized, multicenter international trial with 80 patients in
Front-Line Carboplatin-Paclitaxel Chemotherapy versus
Carboplatin-Paclitaxel-oregovomab Chemo immunotherapy to establish
evidence for the clinical benefit associated with enhanced specific
T cell immunity achievable by combining oregovomab with
chemotherapy in the initial treatment of advanced ovarian
cancer.
There are currently eight centers in
Italy that are participating in
the oregovomab clinical trial, with Professor Roberto Angioli at Policlinico Universitario
Campus Bio-Medico Di Roma acting as the study chair. Of the eight
centers, three are currently actively enrolling patients while two
other centers will soon be enrolling patients as they have recently
received the necessary regulatory approval. The remaining three
centers are in the final stages of receiving local ethics committee
approval.
"We are excited to be a major part of this
international clinical trial for oregovomab," said Prof. Angioli,
"The ability to use combinatorial immunotherapy to better mobilize
anti-tumor immunity has the potential to help ovarian cancer
patients worldwide."
"With two more centers enrolling patients
shortly and three other centers ready soon, we are pleased with the
progress of the trial in Italy. We
are continuing to add more centers in the U.S. to further raise the
profile of our product and to accelerate the enrollment process",
said Dr. Madi R. Madiyalakan, Ph.D.,
Chief Executive Officer for Quest.
About oregovomab
Quest PharmaTech is developing oregovomab, a
high affinity monoclonal antibody for the treatment of advanced
ovarian cancer. Oregovomab targets the circulating tumour
associated antigen CA125. The unique mechanism of action of this
treatment involves infusion of oregovomab at immune stimulatory
doses (2mg) that specifically bind circulating and local CA125. The
antibody-antigen complex is taken up by dendritic cells that, after
processing, present the antigen fragments to T-cells via the MHC
system. The robust CD4 and CD8 T-cell response that follows has
been shown to be associated with a survival advantage, especially
when administered in combination with chemotherapy.
About Quest PharmaTech Inc.
Quest is a publicly traded, Alberta-based biotechnology company committed
to the development and commercialization of oncology product
candidates. It is developing a series of products for the treatment
of cancer based on its pipeline of SonoLight compounds; and
monoclonal antibodies which target certain tumour antigens that are
presented in a variety of cancers. The Company has active
collaborations with major comprehensive cancer care centers, and
international experts, to further the growing understanding of how
to use antibodies to make a patient's own tumour markers become the
patient's own vaccine.
Quest believes that combinatorial immunotherapy,
which exploits the immune modulating effects of selected cytotoxic
agents normally used in standard chemotherapy regimens along with
specific immune stimulants will lead to important commercial
applications of the Company's proprietary platform. Quest is
currently conducting two carefully planned, risk mitigating
confirmatory clinical trials, not only to validate the superiority
of the combinatorial approach, but also to design a definitive
product registration study. The Company's MUC1 antibody program has
the potential to permit tumour specific immunization to a broad
range of additional cancers, including colon, non small cell lung,
breast and pancreas.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation
Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the
TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.
SOURCE Quest PharmaTech Inc.
