Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[eb0783]

This post is more about Exosomes than about Peregrine but I wanted to share my experience of this past week. We just got back from the Buckeye Cruise for Cancer (BC4C). This cruise raised $2.5 million for cancer research at The James (The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute) You can get info on the cruise here if you want: http://www.buckeyecruise.com/ Some info on the James is at the end of this post or you can google it.

So among the 3800 Buckeyes on this Chartered Royal Caribbean ship were 4 of the James’ doctors and some others from their leadership team. You may remember that the James is the home of Peregrine’s KOL, David Carbone. Unfortunately, Dr. Carbone was not in attendance. However, his boss and two of his department-head peers were on board. I attended 5 different presentations and events featuring these doctors. His boss, The James CEO Dr. Michael Caligiuri, who has his own famous lab, opened those events. The two Carbone peers were: Dr. Ted Teknos, Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, and Dr. Timothy Pawlik, Chair of the Department of Pancreatic and Gastrointestinal Surgery. You might notice that these two doctors take care of cancers directly above and directly below Dr. Carbone’s thoracic area of the body.

One of the more memorable impressions I got was when I brought up exosomes to Dr. Pawlik. He was genuinely excited and said they are doing a lot with exosomes and, in fact, were submitting a new paper on the subject as we spoke. Later I asked Dr. Caligiuri about them and he said they had published papers on the them in the past and were submitting a new one. He gave me his card and said email me and I will get you our last published one. The next time I got to ask Dr. Pawlik about them he said to email him also. Both of them were surprised at my exosome questions and I believe they were both excited about researching and using exosomes. So from that, we should get the idea that Peregrine’s quick, cheap, blood test for exosomes is a leading edge product and that many, many leading researchers are focusing on exosomes today. We are leaders on that train.

Another thing that should be interesting to us is a statement by Dr. Caligiuri that all “world class” experts in a field know all the other world class experts in their field. That was in a discussion where he was describing his doctors as experts in their fields because that is all they work on and study. He stressed that when you hear those terrible words, “You have cancer,” It is almost never an emergency and you should always get a second opinion (1 in 10 diagnosis of a specific cancer is wrong). He said to us on the cruise, “I publish my number on our site so that you can call me from anywhere in the world (Singapore, Hamburg, Brasilia, etc) and I can tell you how to reach the closest world class expert for your cancer.” From that discussion, we should understand and find comfort that Peregrine’s world class advisors (KOL’s) know all the others in their area of expertise.

And the last thing I wanted to share is a question I asked about the NCCN. Dr. Caligiuri talked a lot about the 46 NCI Comprehensive Cancer Centers. So other than the NCCN being a subset of the NCI CCC’s, what is the difference? He explained it simply as the NCCN is the group who writes the guidelines and protocols that the NCI uses to designate if an institution qualifies to be a Comprehensive Cancer Center. All CCC’s follow those guidelines and protocols.

As a side note, back in November of 2015 the OSU Alumni Association set up a tour of The James on the first birthday of its brand-new facility. Dr. Teknos was the Dr. who gave us the presentation at that time.

As I’m writing this I just got that paper emailed to me that Dr. Caliguri promised me above. It was originally published in April 2015 in Blood (print ISSN 0006-4971, online ISSN 1528-0020), published weekly by the American Society of Hematology, 2021 L St, NW, Suite 900, Washington DC 20036.

Characterization of CLL exosomes reveals a distinct microRNA signature and enhanced secretion by activation of BCR signaling
Yuh-Ying Yeh,1 Hatice Gulcin Ozer,2 Amy M. Lehman,3 Kami Maddocks,1 Lianbo Yu,3 Amy J. Johnson,1,4 and John C. Byrd1,4
1 Division of Hematology, Department of Internal Medicine, 2 Department of Biomedical Informatics, 3 Center for Biostatistics, and 4 Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.
The OSUCCC – James has more than 200 oncologists, each of whom specializes in just one type of cancer. That expert sub-specialization leads to more productive integration with cancer research and, ultimately, to better outcomes. We manage hundreds of active or pending cancer clinical trials, many of which are initiated by OSUCCC – James investigators. Our genetic- and molecular-based research helps us understand each patient's unique cancer and develop and deliver the most effective targeted therapy that leads to better outcomes, fewer side effects and more hope.

National Cancer Institute
In 2015, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) gave The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) a perfect score of 10 and the NCI’s highest descriptor, “exceptional,” following a site review that resulted in Ohio State’s re-designation as a comprehensive cancer center—a designation the university has competitively maintained since 1976. It was the second consecutive time in 10 years that the OSUCCC – James has earned the NCI’s “exceptional” rating, having also done so in 2010. With this re-designation, the OSUCCC – James retains its status as one of only 46 CCCs in the nation, an honor accompanied by another five years of NCI multimillion dollar core grant funding support for scientific leadership and administration, shared technology and services, and development.

National Comprehensive Cancer Network
The James is a charter member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of 27 of the world’s leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research and education. The NCCN is dedicated to improving the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of cancer care so patients can live better lives.