BiovaxID® Personalized Lymphoma Vaccine is Featured in Article Published in Drug Discovery News
March 15 2012 - 9:30AM
Business Wire
Biovest International, Inc. (OTCQB: BVTI), a majority-owned
subsidiary of Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: ABPI),
today announced that an article was published in Drug Discovery
News, reporting on the promise of Biovest’s BiovaxID® personalized
cancer vaccine for the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, an
incurable form of blood cancer.
The article, titled “Just a Shot in the Dark?”, reports that, “A
drug of great promise on the horizon is BiovaxID, Biovest’s
late-stage personalized cancer vaccine for the treatment of
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. If approved, BiovaxID would represent the
first non-immunosuppressive consolidation therapy option for
patients with follicular lymphoma. Biovest has on its medical board
Dr. Larry Kwak of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer
Center, who was recognized by Time Magazine as a 2010 Person of the
Year for his decade of work in the area of cancer vaccines.”
The article also includes an interview with Biovest’s clinical
advisor, Sattva S. Neelapu, M.D., Associate Professor, Department
of Lymphoma/Myeloma, Division of Cancer Medicine at The University
of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Neelapu states, “BiovaxID induces both antibody and T-cell
responses against the idiotype (Id), which is the tumor-specific
antigen expressed on B-cell lymphomas such as follicular lymphoma.
Antibodies induced by the vaccine can bind to the Id expressed on
tumor cells and mediate killing via other immune cells. T-cells
induced by the vaccine also recognize Id-derived peptides on the
tumor and mediate killing by secreting various cytokines and other
cytotoxic molecules. Our results suggest that the T-cell responses
are likely to be more important than antibody responses for
BiovaxID's effect.”
Based on positive outcomes from three BiovaxID clinical trials,
including a multi-center, controlled, randomized Phase III
follicular lymphoma study, Biovest is currently in the process of
conducting a series of clinical pre-filing meetings including with
Health Canada, the EMA, individual EU national agencies, and the
FDA. The guidance and recommendations received at these meetings
will determine the next steps in seeking approvals for
BiovaxID.
The complete Drug Discovery News article can be accessed in the
Media Center at Biovest's corporate website at:
http://www.biovest.com/investor-relations/media-center
About BiovaxID®
Biovest's lead drug product is BiovaxID®, an autologous active
immunotherapy (personalized cancer vaccine) for the treatment of
certain B-cell subtypes of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, an incurable
form of blood cancer. Over the past decade, two Phase II clinical
trials and a Phase III clinical trial have demonstrated strong and
cumulative evidence with regards to BiovaxID vaccination’s safety
and efficacy. With regards to safety, all clinical trials to date
demonstrate that BiovaxID vaccination is highly safe and poses a
nearly vanishingly small toxicity risk relative to approved
anti-lymphoma agents. Moreover, BiovaxID provides substantial and
durable clinical efficacy with the Phase III clinical trial
demonstrating that BiovaxID significantly improves disease-free
survival in follicular lymphoma and the Phase II mantle cell
lymphoma clinical trial demonstrating that BiovaxID induces strong
idiotype-specific T-cell responses which strongly correlate with
highly-statistically significant overall survival.
About Biovest International,
Inc.
Biovest International, Inc. is an emerging leader in the field
of active personalized immunotherapies. In collaboration with the
National Cancer Institute, Biovest has developed a
patient-specific, cancer vaccine, BiovaxID®, with three clinical
trials completed, including a Phase III study, demonstrating
evidence of safety and efficacy for the treatment of indolent
follicular non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Headquartered in Tampa, Florida with its bio-manufacturing
facility based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Biovest is
publicly-traded on the OTCQB™ Market with the stock-ticker symbol
“BVTI”, and is a majority-owned subsidiary of Accentia
Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: “ABPI”).
For further information, please visit:
http://www.biovest.com
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