NCI awards Altor Bioscience a $3 MM grant to develop its targeted cancer therapeutic ALT-801

Altor BioScience Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Bridge Grant by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The award of $3 MM over three years will help Altor further its clinical development of ALT-801, a novel tumor-targeted immunotherapeutic designed to improve the efficacy and safety of the FDA-approved anticancer cytokine, interleukin-2 (IL-2). This funding will initially be used to support a clinical trial with a novel biochemotherapy regimen of ALT-801 with cisplatin in patients with metastatic melanoma. Altor also plans to use the funding to launch other clinical trials for ALT-801 in renal cell carcinoma, head & neck cancer and prostate cancer. In a recently completed Phase I/IIa trial, certain patients with these cancers were found to benefit from treatment with ALT-801.

NCI’s pilot SBIR Phase II Bridge Award is intended to further support previously funded SBIR Phase II projects to accelerate the development of new cancer therapies and imaging devices along the path toward commercialization. Selection for Phase II Bridge Awards is based both on scientific and technical merits as well as the commercialization potential of the technology.

Hing Wong, Ph.D., Altor's CEO commented, "Altor is extremely pleased to receive this award from NCI. This award not only enables Altor to advance ALT-801 into Phase II efficacy studies without the help of a corporate partner, but it also validates the concept of using our proprietary targeting technology to improve the efficacy and safety of clinically proven drugs for treatment of cancer and viral infections. We appreciate the continued grant support from the NCI and FDA, which has helped advance ALT-801 from the research and development stage into clinical studies.”