Aposense has entered into a material transfer agreement with the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA) in which the company has granted the university to use its EarliTest technology in a clinical trial in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) type brain cancer patients.
The trial will be funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the US government.
The clinical trial planned by the University of Pittsburgh adds to the other phase II trials currently being conducted by Aposense in patients with cancer with brain metastases, cancer of the lungs, and cancer of the head and neck, and to clinical trials conducted by Aposense pharma partners.
The clinical data on the EarliTest imaging solution collected during the study may aid Aposense in its future regulatory submission to the FDA.
EarliTest uses a radioactive labeled compound (18F-ML-10) that allows imaging of the response of a cancerous tumor early during the course of anticancer treatments.
Aposense has also signed collaboration agreements with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Roche, according to which the companies will use EarliTest for molecular imaging in clinical trials in which the efficacy of new oncological treatments will be tested.
In return, Aposense has the right to access and use the resulting clinical data.
The clinical trials will be fully funded by GSK and Roche, which will also pay Aposense an immaterial sum.
Aposense develops agents for the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of diseases based on its proprietary platform technology that identifies and binds to cells and tissues in the body that are in the process of undergoing regulated cell death (apoptosis).
Together with Teva Pharmaceuticals, Aposense is developing targeted anti-cancer therapies utilizing generic chemotherapies.