Boston, MA (Press Release) – OncoPep, Inc. to­day an­nounced a licensing agree­ment with MANA Thera­peutics for use of its EDIFY™ plat­form for the de­vel­op­ment of an au­tol­o­gous multi-tumor an­ti­gen adoptive T cell ther­apy for the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma and solid tumors, as an addi­tional T cell focused im­mu­no­ther­apeutic for its prod­uct pipe­line.

“The addi­tion of a multi-antigen adoptive T cell ther­apy to our pipe­line ex­pands the breadth of our immuno-oncology pro­grams in mul­ti­ple myeloma in addi­tion to solid tumors, and pro­vides patients with another po­ten­tial treat­ment op­tion for a dis­ease for which there is no cure,” said Doris Peterkin, Chief Exec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of OncoPep. “Our ini­tial focus will be devel­op­ing this unique adoptive T cell ther­apy for the po­ten­tial treat­ment of patients with mul­ti­ple myeloma."

OncoPep is devel­op­ing the adoptive T cell ther­apy as part of a licensing agree­ment with MANA Thera­peutics. MANA’s EDIFY™ plat­form is spe­cif­i­cally de­signed to train T cells to target mul­ti­ple tumor asso­ci­ated an­ti­gens, har­nessing the patient’s im­mune sys­tem for an ap­proach that targets a broader set of an­ti­gens ex­pressed by the tumor. In this col­lab­o­ration, a patient’s T cells will be trained ex vivo with EDIFY™ to target the an­ti­gens, XBP1, CD138 and CS1, which are highly over-expressed in mul­ti­ple myeloma and other solid tumors. OncoPep’s lead thera­peutic can­cer vaccine can­di­date, PVX-410, is also de­signed to train T cells to target XBP1, CD138 and CS1 and could po­ten­tially be used in com­bi­na­tion with the adoptive T cell ther­apy. This new adoptive T cell ther­apy ap­proach has the po­ten­tial to pro­vide more persistent and durable con­trol over tumor cell growth and could prevent the pro­gres­sion of can­cer and im­prove quality of life for patients with mul­ti­ple myeloma.

“The OncoPep team has devel­oped a deep sci­en­tif­ic under­stand­ing of mul­ti­ple myeloma and the complexities of the dis­ease,” said Martin Silverstein, M.D., Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of MANA Thera­peutics. “MANA’s EDIFY™ plat­form has already been studied in two clin­i­cal trials using ManaMix™ an­ti­gens, and is being deployed in addi­tional clin­i­cal trials under MANA’s INDs. We are pleased to enter into a licensing agree­ment with OncoPep that will ex­pand the appli­ca­tion of our EDIFY™ plat­form to a new set of tumor an­ti­gens that are over-expressed in mul­ti­ple myeloma and specified solid tumors.”

About Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a debilitating type of hema­to­logic can­cer that affects plasma cells. It is the sec­ond most common blood can­cer, accounting for 13% of all hema­to­logic can­cers and 1% of all can­cer deaths. MM is char­ac­ter­ized by a pro­lif­er­a­tion of malignant plasma cells, which may in turn in­ter­fere with the nor­mal pro­duc­tion of blood cells. MM causes sig­nif­i­cant side effects, such as debilitating bone pain and fractures, anemia, leu­ko­penia, throm­bo­cyto­penia, renal insufficiency and failure, hypercalcemia and in­creased chance of in­fec­tion.

About OncoPep

OncoPep is devel­op­ing targeted im­mu­no­ther­apeutics to prevent the pro­gres­sion of can­cer, pro­long sur­vival and restore the quality of life of patients. OncoPep’s lead pro­gram is an inves­ti­ga­tional, multi-peptide thera­peutic vaccine being eval­u­ated in treating smol­der­ing mul­ti­ple myeloma. www.oncopep.com .

Source: OncoPep.