TSX Venture: QPT
EDMONTON, July 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Quest PharmaTech
Inc. (TSXV: QPT) ("Quest" or the "Company"), a pharmaceutical
company developing and commercializing products for the treatment
of cancer, today announced that it has received notice of allowance
for U.S. Patent Application 10/831,886 entitled: "Combination
Therapy for Treating Disease" (the "Patent"). The Patent covers the
use of monoclonal antibodies capable of targeting tumor antigens CA
125, MUC1, CA 19.9, TAG-72 and prostate specific antigen, which are
presented in ovary, breast, lung, pancreas, stomach and prostate
cancers, respectively, in combination with a chemotherapeutic drug
to treat cancer.
The Company's technology platform was based on the observation
that its lead product, Oregovomab, when used as mono-immunotherapy
during watchful waiting period in ovarian cancer patients was
unable to meet progression free survival endpoint. However, when
Oregovomab was administered in combination with front-line
carboplatin-paclitaxel, the combination resulted in a more vigorous
immune response, which in turn consistently correlated with
favorable clinical outcome in a 40 patient clinical trial. An
enhanced immune response was also observed with anti-MUC1 antibody
and another chemotherapeutic agent, gemcitabine, in a pancreatic
cancer animal model. In addition to the use of chemotherapeutic
agents to enhance immune response, Quest has successfully used
photosensitizer, SL052 as well as a TLR3 agonist, Ampligen in
preclinical settings.
The allowance of the Patent by the U.S. Patent Office provides
broad coverage to Quest's Combination Therapy Technology Platform,
complementing the corresponding patents already issued in
Europe and Australia. In addition, Quest has thirteen
issued patents and five pending patent applications in the U.S. to
protect various aspects of Quest's technology.
The Company is in the process of translating its valuable
intellectual property into commercial success by conducting three
carefully planned proof-of-concept clinical trials to establish the
superiority of the combinatorial immunotherapy either with
front-line chemotherapy consisting of carboplatin/paclitaxel in
ovarian cancer or gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer or with the
addition of a TLR3 agonist, Ampligen. The Company hopes that
successful results from these studies will lead to the design of a
definitive product registration study.
About Quest PharmaTech Inc.
Quest is a publicly traded, Alberta-based biotechnology company committed
to the development and commercialization of oncology product
candidates. It is developing a series of products for the treatment
of cancer based on its pipeline of SonoLight compounds, and
monoclonal antibodies that target certain tumor antigens that are
presented in a variety of cancers. Quest believes that by combining
these antibodies with other cancer therapies such as chemotherapy
or photodynamic therapy, it can potentially further complement and
enhance treatment outcomes compared to antibody treatment
alone.
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SOURCE Quest PharmaTech Inc.