GeneMax Corp. Announces Receipt of its Primary Vaccine Candidate for Oncology Applications
- Company preparing for final stages of pre-clinical development -
VANCOUVER, June 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - GeneMax Corp. (OTC Bulletin
Board: GMXX), a biotechnology company specializing in the development of
preventative vaccines and immunotherapeutics for cancer and infectious
diseases announced today that it has received its lead vaccine candidate,
AdhTAP(OS-1) from its PER.C6(R) technology licensor and contract manufacturer,
Crucell (Leiden, The Netherlands). The proprietary adenovirus construct has
been optimized to allow enhanced expression of the Transporter of Antigen
Processing (TAP) that, in animal models, has been shown to increase both the
killing of tumours by the immune system and animal survival.
"Receipt of the AdhTAP(OS-1) viral construct is an exciting and important
milestone for GeneMax as it positions us to move forward with pre-clinical
development of our leading oncology product," said Konstantine Sarafis,
President and CEO of GeneMax. "The design, production and quality control of
AdhTAP(OS-1) took two years to complete. GeneMax scientists have worked
diligently to achieve this milestone and will now rapidly move to conclude
testing of the vaccine enhancer in animal models of cancer, ready for
manufacturing scale up and preclinical testing in humans. This is a notable
accomplishment for GeneMax."
Larger scale production of AdhTAP(OS-1) will be performed using the
PER.C6(R) cell line, licensed to GeneMax by Crucell. This proprietary cell
line has been shown to be suitable for growth of the virus. Before filing an
Investigational New Drug (IND) submission with the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), the company will complete toxicology studies and a third
oncology model assessing the efficacy of AdhTAP(OS-1).