Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (OTCBB: ADMP) today announced the completion of the acquisition of a unique patented cancer vaccine technology from the Regents of the University of California. The patent comprises "Composition and Method for Inducing and Enhancing a Telomerase Reverse Transciptase-Reactive Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Response." The technology was discovered and developed by Maurizio Zanetti, M.D., at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In addition to this license, Adamis licensed a complementary patent, "Cancer Immunotherapy and Diagnosis Using Universal Tumor Associated Antigens, Including Human Telomerase Reverse Transciptase," based on similar technology from the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. This technology constitutes the basis of a novel cell-based cancer vaccine, TeloB-VAX, which activates the body's natural defense machinery to stimulate an immune response against one of nature's universal tumor markers, i.e. telomerase. The vaccine utilizes the patient's own B cells as antigen producing and antigen presenting cells. B cells represent approximately 12% of the circulating blood cells.
“Cancer Immunotherapy and Diagnosis Using Universal Tumor Associated Antigens, Including Human Telomerase Reverse Transciptase”
Dr. Zanetti, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Laboratory of Immunology at the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, stated of the TeloB-VAX vaccine, "It is the first concrete opportunity to program the immune system to mobilize killer lymphocytes to combat cancer cells, whether these are adult differentiated cells or progenitor cancer stem cells. Since telomerase is increased in over 85% of all cancers, the vaccine can potentially be used to treat multiple cancer types, such as breast, lung, and colon cancer. It can truly be considered a platform therapeutic vaccine technology. It is like the polio vaccine for cancer."
Adamis' therapeutic cancer vaccine is conceptually distinct from the only FDA approved cell-based cancer vaccine, Provenge, developed by Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN). Adamis' TeloB-VAX vaccine is composed of the patients' own circulating B lymphocytes harboring a unique patented engineered plasmid DNA. The transfection (plasmid DNA entering the B cell) procedure is "spontaneous," requiring no facilitating molecules or devices. After 60 minutes of incubation with the plasmid, the cells can be re-infused back into the patient. TeloB-VAX prostate cancer vaccine has been shown to induce a potent cellular immune response against the first truly common cancer marker, the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT). Telomerase was the subject of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2009.
A Phase 1 study completed at UCSD in castrate resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) patients demonstrated this vaccine to be safe, non-toxic and immunogenic. Two injections of TeloB-VAX, spaced one month apart, were shown to induce a specific CD8 T cell response. More important, the T cells induced post vaccination were shown to specifically kill prostate cancer cells.