Moffitt Cancer Center and CvergenX have entered into a licensing agreement under which CvergenX has acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to a technology platform that individualizes radiation therapy, InterveneXRT.
Under the license agreement, CvergenX has agreed to pay Moffitt when various commercialization milestones are reached, as well as royalty payments on the sales of testing services and licensed products.
The companies said that researchers at Moffitt have used gene expression analysis and systems biology to create a radio-sensitivity classification index for individual tumors.
Reportedly, based upon seven years of research and more than $2m primarily funded through the National Cancer Institute, the testing platform is undergoing clinical studies for further validation and optimization of its methods.
Javier Torres-Roca, the radiation oncologist, co-founder of CvergenX with Steven Eschrich, both Moffitt faculty members, said: “While genomic analysis has been applied in the development of diagnostic tools to guide chemotherapy use, this is the first time that the field has expanded to radiation therapy.
“Radiation therapy has undergone vast changes with significant improvements in imaging and engineering that better direct the treatment, but this level of analysis will truly individualise each treatment, arming oncologists with answers as when and how much to radiate information that has been unavailable until now.”
Mary Del Brady, chairman and CEO of CvergenX, said: “The license agreement is one of the key milestones established for the company in 2010. With the intellectual property fully protected, we are poised to proceed with the commercialization of InterveneXRT, including studies across multiple disease sites and, later, the opening of an independent advanced diagnostics laboratory.
“We believe that the individualization of radiation therapy is an important component of personalized cancer treatment.”