Sellas Partners With PPD For Advancing Cancer Vaccine
By C. Rajan, contributing writer
Swiss biotech company Sellas Life Sciences has partnered with Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD), a contract research organization (CRO), in order to develop Sellas' portfolio of drugs and biologics, which includes two phase 2 products.
The two companies signed a definitive master service agreement, under which PPD will use its drug development capabilities to advance the clinical and regulatory development for Sellas’ WT1 cancer vaccine and lead drug Zolpidem for five initial indications, including Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Mesothelioma, Multiple Myeloma, Parkinson's Disease, and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.
Sellas has said that it will also develop further drugs and indications with PPD. The company plans to initiate the phase 2 clinical trials for Zolpidem around Q4 2014 for the orphan indication Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, followed by trials for Parkinson's disease.
Commenting on the company’s drug portfolio, Dr. Angelos M. Stergiou, CEO & chairman of Sellas, said, "The assets we currently hold, mainly Zolpidem for central nervous indications and the WT1 cancer vaccine, initially will be used across five late-stage indications: Zolpidem for Parkinson's Disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, and WT1 for Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Mesothelioma, Multiple Myeloma and subsequently ovarian cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer and colon cancer.”
Last month, Sellas signed an exclusive global collaboration and license agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) for the development, marketing, and commercialization of MSK's proprietary WT1 cancer vaccine.
WT1 is one of the leading targets for cancer immunotherapy. WT1 (Wilms Tumor Protein) is a transcription factor that is a key player in many human cancers, including most blood cancers, mesothelioma, and ovary, lung, gastrointestinal tract, breast, and prostate cancer. The vaccine has already demonstrated safety and efficacy in immunizing patients against the WT1 antigen in several clinical trials.
Sellas’ lead drug Zolpidem is a highly specific GABA agonist, which the company is developing for Parkinson's Disease (PD) and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), as well as other basal ganglia disorders. Zolpidem has shown potential for significantly improving motor and cognitive symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.