ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. ("ImmunoCellular") (NYSE MKT: IMUC) announced an agreement with Pure MHC, an Emergent Technologies portfolio company, for development of a novel assay for quality control that will be an important component of ImmunoCellular's ICT-107 phase 3 registrational clinical program in newly diagnosed glioblastoma, anticipated to begin in the second half of 2015. Under the terms of the agreement, Pure MHC will develop and validate a new assay specifically created for ICT-107, a dendritic-cell based immunotherapy targeting six antigens found on glioblastoma cells, especially stem cells. The new assay will be used to validate the quality and confirm the activity of ICT-107 and allow it to be released for administration to patients in the phase 3 trial.
"The agreement with Pure MHC is another important milestone in ImmunoCellular's progress toward the phase 3 registration trial for ICT-107," said Andrew Gengos, ImmunoCellular Chief Executive Officer. "Designing a new release assay to support the specific requirements of the ICT-107 six-antigen complex requires special skill and expertise, and we are confident in Pure MHC's ability to deliver a validated release assay. We believe that the knowledge and know-how gained from developing this assay can be applied to our other dendritic cell-based immunotherapy programs, thus representing a meaningful return on investment for our Company. We look forward to continuing to advance toward beginning patient enrollment in the phase 3 trial of ICT-107 in the late third quarter or early fourth quarter of this year."
"Pure MHC has developed a suite of platform technologies in the field of immuno-oncology including the use of TCRm mAb to validate peptide vaccine delivery," said Tommy Harlan, Pure MHC Chief Executive Officer. "Pure MHC looks forward to using its patented TCRm potency assay to support the release of ImmunoCellular's ICT-107 dendritic cell-based immunotherapy for glioblastoma."
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