UbiVac CEO Presents at the China Center for Food and Drug International Exchange’s China Cancer Immunotherapy Workshop

Contact: Patricia Pearson, [email protected], (1) 503.887.1871

June 22, 2015

Beijing, China—UbiVac, www.ubivac.com, a private, clinical-stage immuno-oncology company with a lead product that educates the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer, has announced that its co-founder and CEO, Bernard A. Fox, PhD, has been invited to share his views on the application of biomarkers to the development and regulatory considerations for cancer immunotherapy at the China Cancer Immunotherapy Workshop on June 23. UbiVac is based in Portland, Ore.

The program is organized by the China Center for Food and Drug International Exchange (CCFDIE), in cooperation with the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) and Chinese American Hematologist and Oncologist Network (CAHON). Representatives from regulatory agencies in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US), pharmaceutical industry, and academia will share their views and experiences on the topic. The audience will include oncologists, scientists, leaders in oncology drug development, and government officials.

During his presentation, Dr. Fox will discuss the evolving role and opportunities for “immune biomarkers” in development of and regulatory considerations for cancer immunotherapeutics. He will highlight current state-of-the-art immune biomarkers, including the strategies UbiVac is employing to evaluate patients enrolled in their clinical trials, and how these studies could soon be used to tailor combination immunotherapies.

Dr. Fox also will provide examples of how immune biomarker assays have identified positive early results with UbiVac’s lead product, documenting induction or boosting of immunity against a wide spectrum of cancer targets in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).  

“By inducing immunity against a wide range of putative cancer antigens, DPV-001, UbiVac’s lead agent, fills a gap in the pipeline of major pharmaceutical companies,” Dr. Fox said. “Much current research is focused on taking the brakes off the immune system. However, it appears the immune system in many patients is not turned on and needs to be revved up. UbiVac’s targeted complex immunotherapy was developed to do just that.”

UbiVac’s strategy is to combine DPV-001 with anti-PD-1 to prime anti-cancer immunity in patients who lack anti-cancer immunity. UbiVac’s research suggests that in synergy with anti-PD-1 inhibitors or other agents it appears possible for DPV-001 to substantially increase the response rate; and thus the percentage of patients who obtain a complete response to treatment. Anti-PD-1 inhibitors are a new class of drugs that activate the immune system to attack tumors. UbiVac will initiate a clinical trial of DPV-001 and anti-PD-1 to further test this strategy in the second half of 2015.

UbiVac’s technology is being studied in a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-supported, randomized, multi-center, phase II clinical trial for patients with NSCLC.  UbiVac’s DC-targeted complex immunotherapy also is in a pilot study for men with prostate cancer. A trial for patients with breast cancer will open in the second half of 2015.

The ongoing clinical research reported in this announcement is supported by the NCI of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number R44CA121612. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NCI or the NIH.

UbiVac is a clinical stage immuno-oncology company engaged in research and development of therapeutic immunotherapies to combat cancer. Founded in Portland, Ore. In 2005, it is a spinout of the Robert W. Franz Cancer Research Center within the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute at Providence Medical Center. In 2011 UbiVac, in cooperation with Oregon Health & Science University, created UbiVac CMV Inc., to license a disabled cytomegalovirus (CMV) vector technology for use as a vaccine. This technology is actively being developed in collaboration with other research partners. The company’s co-founder, president and CEO, Bernard A. Fox, PhD, holds the Harder Family Endowed Chair for Cancer Research and is member and chief, Laboratory of Molecular and Tumor Immunology at the Robert W. Franz Cancer Research Center, Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Center.