On September 26, 2016 MabVax Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBVX), a clinical-stage oncology drug development company, reported that its lead antibody development program, HuMab 5B1, was featured in three separate presentations at the recently held World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC) in September (Press release, MabVax, SEP 26, 2016, View Source [SID:SID1234515400]). The presentations were made by investigators from the Department of Radiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) describing the novel use of MabVax’s lead antibody as a PET imaging agent and as a radioimmunotherapy agent targeting pancreatic and bladder cancer.
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Summaries of the investigator presentations and key points made are as follows:
"Utilizing antibody fragments for same-day pre-targeted immunoPET imaging in preclinical pancreatic cancer" – Investigators demonstrated that the MabVax HuMab-5B1 antibody can be successfully produced as a smaller fragment called a F(ab’)2 and coupled to multiple imaging agents without impacting immunoreactivity. This smaller fragment was coupled with Zirconium and Copper-based PET imaging agents, and a commonly used fluorescence imaging agent. All three constructs produced promising results for rapid immunoPET or immunofluorescent imaging. The potential advantage of using a smaller fragment is that imaging results could be obtained more rapidly and perhaps within the same day, giving physicians more real-time information and providing increased convenience for patients. This work was led by Jacob Houghton, Ph.D. of the Department of Radiology at MSK.
"Bioorthogonal click chemistry for the development of 225 Ac-radioimmunoconjugates and its application to pretargeting" – Investigators demonstrated that the MabVax HuMab-5B1 antibody was successfully conjugated to the radioimmunotherapy agent 225Actinium without losing immunoreactivity. Actinium has received increased interest among investigators as a potential therapeutic modality because of its alpha particle radiation has a limited range in tissue of a few cell diameters and a greater energy release for selectively killing cancer cells. This work was led by Sophie Poty, Ph.D. from the Department of Radiology and the Molecular Pharmacology Program at MSK.
"Tumor-specific PET Imaging in a Bladder Cancer Model" – The investigators demonstrated that the 89Zirconium-labeled HuMab-5B1 labeled antibody can specifically bind to xenograft tumors of human bladder cancer in animal models, potentially leading to use as an immunoPET radiotracer. There is a large unmet medical need for new treatments for bladder cancer, with an estimated 76,900 new cases each year. MabVax’s 89Zirconium-labeled HuMab-5B1 antibody (MVT-2163) is now in a phase I clinical trial for evaluation as a PET imaging agent for pancreatic cancer targeting the CA19.9 epitope, which is expressed on one-third to one-half of bladder cancers. This work was led by Jeffrey Steckler and Jacob Houghton, Ph.D. of the Department of Radiology at MSK.
David Hansen, CEO of MabVax Therapeutics, said, "We are grateful to Jason S. Lewis, Ph.D. and his team for their continued pioneering work using the HuMab-5B1 platform. They are taking important steps in expanding the clinical utility of our HuMab-5B1 antibody, including (1) demonstrating that smaller fragments of our full-length antibody could provide significant advantages in speeding tumor imaging, (2) demonstrating the utility of our full length antibody with a new radioimmunotherapy approach, (3) helping MabVax to evaluate additional CA19-9 expressing cancers for which our antibody development program may have utility beyond our current focus on pancreatic cancer, and (4) completing investigations supporting our radioimmunotherapy product for which we plan to submit an Investigational New Drug Application later this year."