Progenics and Cytogen Announce Award of $7.4 Million in NIH Grants for Prostate Cancer Immunotherapies
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. and PRINCETON, N.J., Nov 2, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PGNX) and Cytogen Corporation (Nasdaq: CYTO) today announced the award of grants totaling $7.4 million over four years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The awards were made under the National Cancer Institute's FLAIR program, or Flexible System to Advance Innovative Research for Cancer Drug Discovery by Small Business.
The NIH grants are in the form of two Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grants, and will be used to develop novel immunotherapies for prostate cancer based on prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a promising cancer target. PSMA Development Company LLC (PDC), a 50/50 joint venture between Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Cytogen Corporation, was established in June 1999 to pursue the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of in vivo immunotherapies incorporating PSMA.
One grant for $3.8 million was awarded to fund the development and clinical testing of a fully human monoclonal antibody for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer. This antibody targets PSMA on the surface of prostate cancer cells and is designed, either alone or with a lethal payload, to selectively kill these tumor cells.
An additional grant for $3.6 million was awarded to fund the continued development of a recombinant soluble PSMA vaccine. The vaccine is designed to enable a patient's immune system to recognize prostate cancer cells as foreign and to eliminate them. Preliminary findings from the ongoing phase 1 clinical study of safety and immunogenicity, reported earlier this year, showed that certain prostate cancer patients produced anti-PSMA antibodies in response to the vaccine. Additional research is ongoing with the intention of optimizing the production, immune response and anti-tumor activity of the vaccine.
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