CEL-SCI Announces Exclusive Licensing Agreement for Cancer Drug Multikine(R) for Republic of South Africa
09 3월 2009 - 10:30PM
PR Newswire (US)
VIENNA, Va., March 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CEL-SCI Corporation
(NYSE Alternext US: CVM) announced today that it has entered into
an exclusive licensing agreement with Byron Biopharma ("Byron")
under which CEL-SCI has granted Byron an exclusive license to
market and distribute the Company's cancer drug Multikine(R) in the
Republic of South Africa (the "Territory"). CEL-SCI already has
existing licensing agreements for Multikine with Teva
Pharmaceuticals and Orient Europharma. Pursuant to the agreement,
Byron will purchase $750,000 worth of stock from CEL-SCI and will
make a payment of $125,000 in 12 months. Byron will also be
responsible for registering the product in the Territory. Once
Multikine has been approved, CEL-SCI will be responsible for
manufacturing the product, while Byron will be responsible for
sales in the Territory. Revenues will be split 50/50 between
CEL-SCI and Byron. "This agreement is consistent with our strategy
to license Multikine in the emerging markets to share the expenses
of bringing Multikine to market," said Geert Kersten, Chief
Executive Officer of CEL-SCI. "We are working on additional
agreements around the world." CEL-SCI is developing Multikine for
approval as a first line indication in head and neck cancer. To
that end, the Company's planned Phase III clinical trial is an 800
patient clinical study designed to demonstrate that administration
of its cancer drug Multikine to head and neck cancer patients
before they receive any conventional cancer treatment will increase
their survival. Head and neck cancer is one of the world's biggest
cancers affecting about 600,000 people per annum worldwide. In
Phase II clinical trials Multikine was shown to be safe and
well-tolerated, and to improve the patients' overall survival by
33% at a median of three and a half years following surgery. The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the go-ahead for a
Phase III clinical trial and recently CEL-SCI took delivery of its
new state of the art manufacturing facility. Multikine, a patented
defined mixture of naturally derived cytokines, is the first
immunotherapeutic agent in a new class of drugs called "Immune
SIMULATORS". Immune SIMULATORS simulate the way our natural immune
system acts in defending us against cancer. As opposed to other
immunotherapies which are designed to target a single or limited
number of specific antigens or molecules, Immune SIMULATORS are
multi-targeted; they simultaneously cause a direct and targeted
killing of the specific tumor cells and they activate the immune
system to produce a stronger anti-tumor attack on multiple fronts.
Multikine is also the first immunotherapeutic agent being developed
as a first-line standard of care treatment for cancer. It is
administered prior to any other cancer therapy because that is the
period when the anti-tumor immune response can still be fully
activated. Once the patient has advanced disease, or had surgery or
has received radiation and/or chemotherapy, the immune system is
severely weakened and is less able to mount an effective anti-tumor
immune response. Other immunotherapies are administered after the
patient has received chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, which
can limit their effectiveness. CEL-SCI has operations in Vienna,
Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland. CEL-SCI's other products, which
are currently in pre-clinical stage, have shown protection against
a number of diseases in animal tests and are being tested against
diseases associated with bio-defense. Most recently CEL-SCI
announced that its newly discovered rheumatoid arthritis vaccine
showed excellent results in animal tests. http://www.cel-sci.com/.
DATASOURCE: CEL-SCI Corporation CONTACT: Gavin de Windt of CEL-SCI
Corporation, +1-703-506-9460 Web Site: http://www.cel-sci.com/
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