LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J.,
July 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Celsion
Corporation (NASDAQ: CLSN), a leading oncology drug development
company, announced today that its ongoing collaboration with Dr.
Costas Arvanitis of Brigham and Women's Hospital, a teaching
affiliate of Harvard Medical School,
has been expanded through the recent award of a $1 million Career Development Award from the
National Institutes of Health's Center for Biomedical Imaging and
Bioengineering (NIBIB). The grant will support preclinical studies
evaluating ThermoDox®, the Company's heat-activated liposomal
encapsulation of doxorubicin, in combination with High Intensity
Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), for the treatment of brain tumors.
The grant, titled "Controlled Delivery and Release of Chemotherapy
in Brain Tumors with FUS" provides on average of $200,000 in annual funding for five years, and
will be used to advance preclinical development of ThermoDox® for
the treatment of brain cancers, including GBM, under the Company's
January 2014 collaboration with
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical
School.
"This peer-reviewed grant award builds upon our ongoing
collaborative work to explore treatments for brain tumors," said
Costas D. Arvanitis, Ph.D., Brigham and Women's Hospital,
Harvard Medical School. "Delivering
chemotherapeutic agents across the blood-brain barrier is
particularly challenging, but in recent years we have discovered
that this could be achieved using focused ultrasound, including
enhanced delivery of liposomal doxorubicin. We are hopeful
that this grant will allow us to determine the potential utility of
a promising therapeutic application for one of the most insidious
cancers - glioblastoma."
"Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive and deadly form of brain
cancer for which there are few treatment options," said
Michael H. Tardugno, Celsion's
President and CEO. "Working with a prominent cancer research
group like Dr. Arvanitis and his team, combined with the financial
support of the NIH, will help accelerate the research required to
elucidate the potential of ThermoDox® combined with HIFU in this
difficult to treat cancer, and provide a path forward for larger,
more comprehensive Phase II studies."
If promising results are obtained from these Phase I studies, a
Phase II grant application will be submitted to include more
comprehensive studies of ThermoDox® and HIFU for the treatment of
GBM brain tumors.
About Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) Brain
Tumors
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), WHO classification name
"glioblastoma", is the most common and most aggressive malignant
primary brain tumor in humans, involving glial cells and accounting
for over 50% of all functional tissue brain tumor cases and nearly
20% of all intracranial tumors. In 2013, projected US
incidence of brain tumors approaches 23,000 cases, with projected
mortality at 14,000 cases. Treatment can involve chemotherapy,
radiation and surgery. Median survival with standard-of-care
radiation and chemotherapy is normally 15 months, and median
survival without treatment is approximately 4½ months.
About ThermoDox®
ThermoDox® is a proprietary, heat-activated liposomal
encapsulation of doxorubicin, an approved and frequently used
oncology drug for the treatment of a wide range of cancers.
ThermoDox® is being evaluated in a Phase III clinical trial for
primary liver cancer and a Phase II clinical trial for recurrent
chest wall breast cancer. Localized mild hyperthermia (39.5 -
42 degrees Celsius) created by radiofrequency ablation (RFA)
releases the entrapped doxorubicin from the liposome. This
delivery technology enables high concentrations of doxorubicin to
be deposited preferentially in a targeted tumor.
About Celsion Corporation
Celsion is fully-integrated oncology company focused on
developing a portfolio of innovative cancer treatments, including
directed chemotherapies, immunotherapies and RNA- or DNA-based
therapies. The Company's lead program is ThermoDox®, a
proprietary heat-activated liposomal encapsulation of doxorubicin,
currently in Phase III development for the treatment of primary
liver cancer. The pipeline also includes EGEN-001, a
DNA-based immunotherapy for the localized treatment of ovarian and
brain cancers. Celsion has three platform technologies for
the development of novel nucleic acid-based immunotherapies and
other anti-cancer DNA or RNA therapies, including
TheraPlasTM, TheraSilenceTM and
RASTTM. For more information on Celsion, visit our
website: http://www.celsion.com.
Celsion wishes to inform readers that forward-looking
statements in this release are made pursuant to the "safe harbor"
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking
statements, including, without limitation, statements about the
acquisition and the combined company as well as clinical and
pre-clinical programs, involve risks and uncertainties. These risks
and uncertainties include, without limitation, difficulties and
operational and financial risks associated with integrating Celsion
and EGEN after completion of the acquisition; unforeseen changes in
the course of research and development activities and in clinical
trials; the significant expense, time, and risk of failure of
conducting clinical trials; the need for Celsion to evaluate its
future development plans; termination of the Technology Development
Contract or collaboration between Celsion and Hisun at any time;
possible changes in cost and timing of development and testing,
capital structure, financial condition, working capital needs and
other financial items; possible acquisitions or licenses of other
technologies, assets or businesses or the possible failure to make
such acquisitions or licenses; possible actions by customers,
suppliers, competitors, regulatory authorities; and other risks
detailed from time to time in the Celsion's periodic reports filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Form
10-Q filed on May 8, 2014. Celsion
assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking
statements that become untrue because of subsequent events, new
information or otherwise.
Celsion Investor Contact
Jeffrey W. Church
Sr. Vice President and CFO
609-482-2455
jchurch@celsion.com
SOURCE Celsion Corporation