Deal covers use of technology with non-DNA-based chemotherapeutics and cytokines.
Newly established cancer therapeutics firm OncoSec Medical Systems negotiated a license to specific Inovio Pharmaceuticals technology and IP relating to the use of electroporation for the delivery of non-DNA chemotherapeutics or cytokines in the treatment of solid tumors. Inovio itself is focused on exploiting the electroporation technology in-house and through collaborations for the delivery of DNA vaccine candidates against cancers and infectious diseases. The firm notes that prior clinical evaluation of electrochemical tumor treatment and cytokine cancer therapy delivered using electroporation has yielded promising results.
OncoSec was founded to develop its OncoSec Medical System (OMS) electroporation platform for the localized treatment of solid tumors using approved cancer drugs or immunotherapeutics. The firm says its OMS platform has already been tested for the delivery of bleomycin in 11 clinical trials. Study data collected from over 400 patients with a broad range of solid tumors has shown that OMS electroporation-based delivery is safe and effective against solid tumors and tumor margins, independent of histology, OncoSec notes.
The firm hopes to seek marketing approval of the system in Europe by 2012 and start pivotal clinical trials in the U.S. during the same year.
