CytRx Corporation has granted an option to PSMA Development Company (PDC), a joint venture between Progenics Pharmaceuticals and Cytogen Corporation, to license TranzFect, CytRx's vaccine adjuvant technology.PDC would utilize TranzFect in this strategic alliance in a prostate cancer vaccine being developed by PDC.
The use of the TranzFect adjuvant with PDC's prostate specific membrane antigen has the potential for producing antibodies (the body's own defense mechanism) that will recognize and destroy prostate cancer cells.The PSMA vaccine is designed to specifically identify and destroy these cells.CytRx believes that the inclusion of the vaccine adjuvant TranzFect should help to ensure that a potent and durable immune response will be produced by the vaccine.
The TranzFect adjuvant has been licensed to Merck for use in Merck's HIV vaccine, where it is being tested in a Phase I clinical trial.In October 2002, the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of CytRx recommended a strategy to further develop TranzFect in other areas.
CytRx CEO Steven A. Kriegsman, stated, "We continue to expand on the strategy suggested by the prestigious group of scientists and executives who are part of the SAB of CytRx.CytRx is pleased to join with other companies in the development of critically needed vaccines for major markets.A successful prostate cancer vaccine would represent a substantial medical breakthrough."
Kriegsman also stated, "We are now focusing our out-licensing on our conventional vaccine adjuvants.These cover cancer, anthrax, malaria, hepatitis B (one shot), and influenza.These programs have the long-term potential to become very large revenue producers for CytRx."
PSMA is a cell-surface protein that is abundantly expressed on prostate cancer cells at all stages of disease, including advanced or metastatic disease.The PSMA gene was first discovered by scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and is exclusively licensed to Cytogen Corporation, which has sublicensed it to the PSMA Development Company LLC for in vivo immunotherapy.PSMA is also present at high levels on the newly formed blood vessels (neovasculature) needed for the growth and survival of many types of solid tumors.If PSMA-targeted therapies can destroy or prevent formation of these new blood vessels, the therapies may prove valuable in treating a broad range of cancers.