Edmonton, Alberta (Press Release) - Quest PharmaTech Inc. (TSX-V: QPT) ("Quest" or the "Company"), a pharma­ceu­tical com­pany devel­op­ing and com­mer­cial­iz­ing prod­ucts for the treat­ment of cancer, announces the presentation of a late-breaking abstract at the 28^th Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) on November 9, 2013 in Maryland, U.S.  The work was jointly developed by Stanford Uni­ver­si­ty, AIT Strategies and Quest as con­tin­u­a­tion of an exclusive license agree­ment between Stanford Uni­ver­si­ty and Quest to develop and market anti-MUC1 IgE tech­nology for the treat­ment of cancer.

The title of the presentation is "MUC1 Specific IgE to Modify Myeloid Derived Cells of the Tumor Micro­en­viron­ment". The licensed tech­nology was developed by a team led by Joseph Mollick, M.D., Ph.D., formerly of Stanford University, and covers the use of immuno­therapeutic IgE in devel­op­ment for treat­ment of patients with malig­nan­cies expressing the tumor-associated an­ti­gen MUC1, which is asso­ci­ated with cancer of the pancreas, colon, breast, lung, ovary, as well as multiple myeloma and others.

Dr, Mollick details the poten­tial of the novel molecule to reprogram myeloid cells in the tumor micro­en­viron­ment, leading to elimination of tumours and prevention of metastases. At the same time, the anti­body can activate specific cellular immune responses directed against MUC1 originating in the tumor.

<p">Quest is focusing its commercial efforts in the area of anti­body mediated cancer immuno­therapy with both IgG and IgE prod­ucts. The Company recently licensed an anti-PSA IgE tech­nology from the University of California at Los Angeles and Advanced Immune Therapeutics, Inc. Quest is cur­rently conducting pre­clin­i­cal studies on anti-MUC1 IgE at the University of Nebraska Medical Center through a sponsored research contract to Professor Michael A. Hollingsworth. Quest also holds numerous patents for the use of tumor asso­ci­ated mono­clonal anti­bodies as immune modulators. "Both IgG and IgE tech­nolo­gies are com­ple­men­tary and provide a novel ap­proach for enhancing the effectiveness of chemo­ther­apy while activating specific immunity to fight the cancer" commented Dr. Madi R. Madiyalakan, CEO of the Company.

About Quest PharmaTech Inc.

Quest PharmaTech is a publicly traded, Canadian based clin­i­cal stage com­pany devel­op­ing a portfolio of prod­uct can­di­dates for the treat­ment of cancer by combining immuno­therapeutic anti­bodies with chemo­ther­a­py, immune-adjuvants and photodynamic ther­apy.Quest has a body of clin­i­cal ex­peri­ence and a new ap­pre­ci­a­tion of the obstacles and poten­tial of combinatorial immuno­therapeutic ap­proaches to cancer by using either immuno­glob­u­lin G or E as immune modulators to en­hance tumor specific immunity and clin­i­cal out­come.

The most ad­vanced of its prod­uct can­di­dates is oregovomab, an anti-CA125 mono­clonal anti­body, in com­bi­na­tion with front-line chemo­ther­apy for the treat­ment of ad­vanced ovarian cancer which is cur­rently undergoing a phase IIb clin­i­cal trial in 12 centers in Italyand the U.S. The Company's MUC1 pro­gram that has already undergone a phase I clin­i­cal trial has the poten­tial to permit tumor specific immunization in more than 70% of all cancers that kill.  Quest is also conducting a phase I clin­i­cal trial for the treat­ment of prostate cancer, with its photosensitizer, SL052.

Source: Quest PharmaTech Inc.