Replies to post #9249 on Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[cjgaddy]

More on the VTA construct VEGF121/rGel

VEGF121/rGel:

9-17-02 PR: The new patent extends the company's broad patent coverage of VTA compositions and treatment methods by providing a unique "targeting agent-therapeutic agent" combination. The targeting agent is the ligand VEGF (vascular endothelial cell growth factor) and the therapeutic agent is a cytotoxic factor termed gelonin. The VEGF121/rGelonin (VEGF/rGel) constructs covered by the new patent complement Peregrine's other VTAs, which use a range of antibody- and ligand-based targeting agents to deliver therapeutic agents such as other cytotoxins, coagulant proteins and radionuclides, into the heart of solid tumors. This patent is particularly designed to protect the ligand-based therapeutic conjugates licensed to SuperGen.

6-11-2002 PR: …new fusion protein that links vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) with a toxin (gelonin) targeted and destroyed the blood vessels supplying a tumor. This VEGF construct is a Vascular Targeting Agent (VTA) compound, which Peregrine licensed to SuperGen, Inc. (SUPG) in Feb 2001. The study, which appears in today's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved administering VEGF121/rGelonin (VEGF/rGel) in mice injected with human melanoma and human prostate cancer cells. Researchers found that tumors in mice treated with VEGF/rGel had been reduced by up to 84% compared to tumors in untreated mice. Furthermore, VEGF/rGel selectively destroyed blood vessels supplying human solid tumors without harming the vasculature of normal tissue

2-13-2001 PR: [Deal completed]: "SuperGen will be examining an area of vascular targeting which has great promise as a potential treatment for solid tumors. VEGF has been shown to play an important role in the growth of tumor blood vessels. There is a great deal of work going on in exploring the role that VEGF interactions play in cancer and in other indications. We are confident SuperGen will successfully explore all of these exciting developments."

1-13-2000 PR: signed a letter of intent to license a segment of its Vascular Targeting Agent (VTA) technology, specifically related to Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), with SuperGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:SUPG). The total agreement is approximately $8 million including an upfront payment, milestone payments and a royalty. The VTA technology is Peregrine's proprietary therapeutic platform designed to specifically target tumor vasculature and subsequently destroy the tumor with various attached therapeutic agents. Although VEGF alone is being examined by many companies as a target for anti-angiogenisis agents, Peregrine holds the patents for attaching most therapeutic agents to VEGF for the purpose of targeting them to the tumor vasculature. Dr. Philip Thorpe, (Prof. of Pharmacology at UT-SW Medical Center at Dallas), and the inventor of the VTA technology has shown proof of principle with this technology in several animal models which have been published in peer reviewed scientific journals, including Science in 1997.