Quest PharmaTech Inc. (TSX-V: QPT) ("Quest" or the "Company"), a pharmaceutical company developing and commercializing products for the treatment of cancer, today announced that it has acquired a pipeline of late-stage immunotherapy product candidates from Paladin Labs Inc. (TSX:PLB) ("Paladin").
The pipeline of product candidates consists of five monoclonal antibodies targeting certain tumor antigens that are presented in a variety of cancers. The first and most advanced of these product candidates is Oregovomab, an anti-CA125 antibody for the treatment of ovarian cancer patients that Quest will evaluate in combination with front-line chemotherapy.
Quest also acquired anti-MUC1, anti-TAG72, anti-PSA and anti-CA19.9 antibodies that could potentially be used for the treatment of breast, lung, stomach, colorectal, pancreas and prostate cancer.
"We believe that these newly acquired immunotherapeutic antibody products have the opportunity to become significantly more effective when combined with chemotherapy, radioimmuno therapy or photodynamic therapy," said Dr. Madi R. Madiyalakan, Chief Executive Officer for Quest. "As one of the original inventors of this technology, I have a deep understanding of the potential of these compounds to become more efficacious treatments for cancer when used as an adjunct in combination with these established therapies. We intend to expeditiously evaluate the potential of the acquired products for conducting a registration trial for one or more combination therapies, which, if successful, could lead directly to one or more applications for regulatory approval."
As part of the transaction, Paladin receives an upfront payment of $37,500 and 1.5 million common shares of Quest, with an additional 1.5 million common shares to be issued to Paladin on or before December 31, 2010. Paladin may also receive an additional 2.0 million common shares of Quest if the Company is successful in its future financing initiatives. The agreement also provides single-digit royalty payments to Paladin on future revenues. In addition to more than 50 issued patents (including eight issued U.S. patents), Quest will also receive associated Oregovomab documents that could be used as the basis for an ovarian cancer clinical trial application, and other product-related assets that could enable clinical trial conduct.
The immunotherapeutic approach to cancer treatment involves modulating the immune system to achieve a therapeutic goal. This approach has advantages in comparison to current conventional treatment practices, which are often radical in nature and associated with severe toxicities, thereby compromising the patient's quality of life. To date though, attempts to use monoimmunotherapies to elicit a therapeutic benefit have met with mixed results as evidenced recently by the data derived from a Phase III trial evaluating Oregovomab as a treatment for ovarian cancer patients.
However, based on the safety, immunology and efficacy data available from more than 1,000 cancer patients and its in-house expertise, Quest believes that it can make treatment modifications to its new portfolio of oncology product candidates to prolong, amplify and shape anti-tumor immune responses to increase the clinical benefits of these antibodies for the treatment of human cancer.