Voltron Therapeutics, Inc announced that it has signed a new Sponsored Research Agreement with the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School to initiate a pre-clinical immuno-oncology trial targeting prostate stem cell antigen in prostate, renal cell and urothelial cancers, adding important potential indications to its growing pipeline.
Self Assembling Vaccine will target Prostate Stem Cell Antigen (PSCA)
Key target in Prostate, Renal and Urothelial Cancers
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Voltron Therapeutics, Inc, a Lucius Partners portfolio company, announced today that it has signed a new Sponsored Research Agreement (SRA) with the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center (VIC) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School to initiate a pre-clinical immuno-oncology trial targeting prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) in prostate, renal cell and urothelial cancers, adding important potential indications to its growing pipeline.
James Ahern, Director at Voltron Therapeutics, has announced that the biotechnology company recently generated robust and compelling data in two pre-clinical trials for human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers sponsored at MGH. The Self-Assembling Vaccine (SAV) targeting HPV demonstrated a positive and highly statistically significant survival improvement in a dose-related manner. This new pre-clinical program will leverage that important work and expand the Company’s potential pipeline into additional types of antigens and cancers.
Pat Gallagher, Voltron’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “In our HPV-related cancer proof of concept trial, Voltron’s SAV demonstrated highly statistically significant increases in survival driven by reduced tumor growth as well as increased tumor infiltration by beneficial immune cells (e.g., CD8+ T cells) using two HPV targeting immunogenic peptides. By using a full protein in our PSCA trials to target cancers of interest instead of specific peptides, we hope to demonstrate unparalleled platform flexibility that would allow us to use full protein sequences to target tumors or viruses of interest. This affords broader targeting in heterogeneous immune systems and could, in theory, allow our vaccine to induce an immune response to any specific tumor antigen of interest.”
Relative to other vaccine approaches, the SAV shows key advantages. It only requires two elements for all vaccines; it has not shown potential to date for off-target immune activation; it has no risks inherent with viral vectors; it does not require special synthetic processes, storage or a complex cold chain like mRNA vaccines.
Dr. Mark Poznansky, Director, Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center, MGH, commented: “This new and important industry sponsored study explores a broader acting therapeutic approach by exploiting the diverse immunologic functions of the SAV platform to enhance the targeting capabilities of immunogenic epitopes from full proteins. We will explore whether Voltron’s SAV platform is capable of presenting the tumor antigen, in this case PSCA, to multiple types of antigen-presenting cells and thereby facilitate epitope presentation to both MHC class I and class II in the context of immune stimulation.”
James Ahern, who is also Managing Partner of Laidlaw & Company (UK) and Founder of Lucius Partners, stated, “The team continues to identify additional programs for Voltron, driven by their expertise and disciplined process. We will pursue indications in both oncology and infectious disease that leverage our highly flexible vaccine platform to create new solutions for clinicians and patients. We remain focused on de-risking our programs and to provide value to our shareholders.”
About Voltron Therapeutics, Inc.
Voltron Therapeutics, Inc., a Delaware corporation, was founded in 2017 to lead and accelerate the development of the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center (VIC), and the Massachusetts General Hospital’s novel Self Assembling Vaccine technology in a variety of indications, including in Oncology and Emerging Infectious Diseases. Voltron holds an exclusive worldwide license to this technology. With the work of our world class team of researchers and development team, this technology has shown in certain pre-clinical studies initial proof of concept in two infectious diseases (including Lassa Fever) as well as three oncology indications (HPV Related Cancers). For more information, please visit www.voltrontx.com.
About Lucius Partners, LLC
Founded by James Ahern, Lucius Partners is a consultancy that provides a broad suite of services to help healthcare companies grow, achieve milestones and generate value for their shareholders.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements that relate to the advancement and development of the VaxCelerate Platform, the commencement of clinical trials, the availability of data from clinical trials and other information that is not historical information. When used herein, words such as “anticipate”, “being”, “will”, “plan”, “may”, “continue”, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements or information that refer to expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, performance or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking. All forward-looking statements are based upon Voltron’s current expectations and various assumptions. Voltron believes there is a reasonable basis for its expectations and beliefs, but they are inherently uncertain. Voltron may not realize its expectations, and its beliefs may not prove correct. Actual results could differ materially from those described or implied by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including, without limitation, market conditions and any Voltron filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Consequently, forward-looking statements should be regarded solely as Voltron’s current plans, estimates and beliefs. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Voltron cannot guarantee future results, events, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Voltron does not undertake and specifically declines any obligation to update, republish, or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or circumstances or to reflect the occurrences of unanticipated events, except as may be required by law.
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Contact:
Patrick Gallagher, CEO
Voltron Therapeutics, Inc.
Managing Partner
Lucius Partners, LLC
pgallagher@luciuspartnersllc.com
Matthew Duffy, President
Voltron Therapeutics, Inc.
Managing Partner
Lucius Partners, LLC
mduffy@luciuspartnersllc.com
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