Quest PharmaTech Inc. a pharmaceutical company developing and commercializing products for the treatment of cancer, announced a clinical development arrangement with US based Hemispherx Biopharma Inc. to evaluate the clinical utility of combining Quest's antibody immunotherapy technology with Hemispherx's immune activator in a thirty patient clinical trial.
Under the terms of the agreement the costs of the clinical trial will be shared equally by Quest and Hemispherx. In addition, Hemispherx will provide appropriate technical expertise and relevant data to support the regulatory process necessary to conduct the clinical trial. Hemispherx has also agreed to store and maintain clinical supply inventory of Oregovomab at their state of the art manufacturing facility in New Brunswick.
“This collaborative clinical study is indicative of our progression as a cancer immunotherapy company and we look forward to working with Hemispherx in the conduct of this important clinical trial to evaluate the utility of our product in combination with Ampligen,” said Dr Madi R. Madiyalakan, Quest's CEO. The company is in negotiation with various investigators in Canada and the US to initiate this clinical study in the coming months.
Hemispherx Biopharma is engaged in clinical development, manufacture and sale of new drugs for the treatment of viral diseases and serious debilitating disorders. Its flagship products include Alferon N Injection, Alferon LDO and the experimental therapeutics Ampligen and Oragens.
Ampligen is a double -stranded RNA immune activating therapeutic that interacts uniquely with TLR 3 pathway and is biologically active in multiple clinical conditions. Ampligen is currently in clinical development most notably for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but also, West Nile Virus and SARS. A new cancer initiative is also being undertaken by Hemispherx. Recent preclinical studies published by Quest's clinical advisor Dr Christopher Nicodemus, MD, FACP indicated that Ampligen could potentially be used as a vaccine enhancer for cancer immunotherapy including with Quest's antibody technology.
Quest is a publicly traded, Alberta-based biotechnology company committed to the development and commercialization of oncology product candidates. It is developing a series of products for the treatment of cancer based on its pipeline of SonoLight compounds and monoclonal antibodies which target certain tumour antigens that are presented in a variety of cancers.