Therapeutic Antibody Directed Discovery Effort

MabVax is leveraging the ongoing Phase I clinical programs at MSKCC and the Phase II clinical trials initiated by the company to create a pipeline of monoclonal antibody products based on the protective immune responses generated from patients who have been successfully immunized against targeted cancers. Samples from vaccinated cancer patients are an extraordinarily rich source of starting material for our proprietary human antibody discovery program. MabVax has demonstrated the ability to isolate and preserve the antibody responses from patients immunized with either monovalent or polyvalent vaccines. We have discovered potentially useful antibodies to multiple antigens to date that all display high affinity, specificity, and pronounced cytotoxic activity against cells displaying the targeted antigens on their surface. The antibodies have potential therapeutic utility in breast, colon, and pancreatic cancers as well as sarcoma, melanoma, and neuroblastoma. Antibodies against sialyl Lewis^a which is over expressed in colon, pancreatic, and breast cancers is our most advanced program. These fully human antibodies have been selected based on high affinity, specificity and potent cytotoxicity in vitro. The recombinant IgG antibody designated r5B1 has demonstrated significant cancer killing capabilities in two colon cancer mouse model studies resulting in a marked survival advantage. The company will complete pre-IND enabling testing and development by the end of 2012 and be ready to move this antibody development candidate into GMP production for Phase I clinical material in early 2013.

In February of 2011, the results of the company’s discovery and characterization work on the fully human monoclonal antibody 5B1 was published in Clinical Cancer Research. A link to the publication can be found here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21343375