Infuseon Therapeutics and OncoSynergy have entered into a strategic alliance to test an investigational glioblastoma therapeutic, OS2966, in combination with a novel delivery device, the Cleveland Multiport Catheter. Glioblastoma is the most common and malignant primary brain tumor. Despite a median survival of merely 12 months, there have been only four FDA approved therapies and no improvement in overall survival in nearly three decades. This unmet need is driven in part by the inability of most chemotherapies and particularly biologics to penetrate the blood-brain-barrier.
Infuseon Therapeutics’ unique therapy delivery device, the Cleveland Multiport Catheter (CMC), a multiport convection-enhanced delivery catheter, was designed by neurosurgeon Michael Vogelbaum, MD, PhD, from Cleveland Clinic’s Brain Tumor and NeuroOncology Center, to more effectively deliver life-saving drugs to patients at the site of their disease. The reliability of the CMC as a loco-regional delivery device has been validated in pilot clinical trials involving delivery of a chemotherapy along with an MRI visible tracer in patients with recurrent high grade gliomas.
OncoSynergy is a UCSF spinout headquartered at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS (JLABS) in South San Francisco. JLABS SSF is a 30,000 square-foot life science innovation incubator, located in South San Francisco. The labs provide a flexible environment for start-up companies pursuing new technologies and research platforms to advance medical care. Through a “no strings attached” model, Johnson & Johnson Innovation does not take an equity stake in the companies occupying JLABS and the companies are free to develop products – either on their own, or by initiating a separate external partnership with Johnson & Johnson Innovation or any other company. OncoSynergy’s first-in-class humanized and de-immunized monoclonal pan-CD29 antibody, OS2966, has demonstrated dramatic efficacy in multiple models of highly aggressive and metastatic solid cancers. Based on these data, the FDA has granted two Orphan Drug Designations for OS2966 including in the treatment of glioblastoma.
“We are pleased to join forces with Infuseon Therapeutics to tackle the complex biology of glioblastoma,” commented Anne-Marie Carbonell, MD, vice president of Clinical Development at OncoSynergy. “The innovative combination of OS2966 and the CMC device seeks to address a huge unmet need and potentially change the way we treat patients suffering from malignant brain tumors.”
The collaboration aims to establish proof of concept that OS2966 can be successfully delivered directly to the brain with the CMC device as an impetus for a phase I trial for the treatment of glioblastoma.
“Infuseon’s Cleveland Multiport Catheter was designed specifically to deliver therapeutics directly to the site of disease,” said Michael Vogelbaum, MD, PhD, co-Founder and chief medical officer of Infuseon Therapeutics. “We are excited to pursue a potentially novel therapeutic approach to this difficult disease.”
Oncosynergy, infuseon therapeutics partner, combat glioblastoma
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