CEL-SCI Corporation announced that it has expanded the licensing agreement with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. for its cancer drug Multikine.

Under the agreement, Teva's exclusive license to market and distribute Multikine, the company's investigational phase III drug for the treatment of head and neck cancer, in Israel and Turkey will be extended to include Croatia and Serbia. Teva is currently funding a part of the global phase III clinical study at three clinical sites in Israel. Teva will be responsible for the costs of registering and selling the product in Serbia and Croatia and will pay CEL-SCI milestone payments upon approval of Multikine. The parties will share revenue generated from all four countries.

“We are pleased to expand our relationship with Teva. Strengthening this relationship will help in maximizing Multikine's potential in developing markets while retaining rights to market Multikine in North America and most of Europe,” said Geert Kersten, chief executive officer of CEL-SCI.

CEL-SCI's phase III clinical trial is an open-label, randomized, controlled, multi-centre study designed to determine if Multikine administered prior to current standard of care (Surgery plus Radiotherapy or Surgery plus Concurrent Radiochemotherapy) used for treatment naive subjects with Advanced Primary Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oral Cavity/Soft Palate (Head and Neck cancer) will result in an increased overall rate of survival versus the subjects treated with standard of care only. It will also be the first trial in which immunotherapy will be administered before any other traditional means of care are attempted. A detailed description of the study can be found at clinicaltrials.gov.

CEL-SCI Corporation is developing products that empower immune defences.