Biovest’s Lymphoma Vaccine Featured in Cancer Immunotherapy Special Report
Biovest International, Inc. (OTCQB:BVTI), a majority-owned subsidiary of Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB:ABPI), today announced that a special report published by highlights Biovest’s personalized cancer vaccine for the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The article, titled “Cancer Immunotherapy Production: Overcoming Obstacles to Profitability” by Suzanne Elvidge, reports that, “Perhaps one route to successful and profitable personalized cancer vaccines is taking a much simpler approach. Biovest’s platform starts with a lymphoma tumor sample. The cancerous B-cells in this sample have receptors on their surface that are crucial for the tumor cell’s survival. Rather than using the whole cell, Biovest creates copies of the cell receptors (idiotype) on the patient’s tumor cells, which are then given as a vaccine with GM-CSF and KLH, a foreign protein that kicks off an immune response, resulting in destruction of the cells.”
The article also notes, “One of the advantages of Biovest’s approach is that all the patient-specific doses can be made at the same time and stored, immediately cutting costs.”
The complete article can be accessed in the Media Center at Biovest’s corporate website at:
Biovest’s President & CEO, Samuel S. Duffey, added, “In contrast to the often complex and expensive methods used to manufacture cell-based autologous cancer vaccines, manufacture is relatively straight-forward: we rely upon a largely automated process that yields small-batches of a patient-specific idiotype (antibody) protein. To manufacture , we rely on well-controlled processes adapted from, and similar to, classic manufacturing of antibody products worldwide. Accordingly, our commercialization strategy requires only one centralized manufacturing facility to meet demand as opposed to multiple facilities. In addition, ’s shipping and handling resemble in most aspects the shipping and handling of currently marketed antibody drug products. Perhaps most importantly for our patients, however, therapy requires only a series of subcutaneous injections instead of highly cumbersome, hours-long intravenous infusion procedures.”
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Biovest International, Inc. develops active immunotherapies (cancer vaccines) which treat and diminish the aggressiveness of B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. The Company’s lead personalized cancer vaccine product candidate, , has been evaluated in three clinical trials conducted in collaboration with the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) demonstrating that increases the duration of cancer remission following chemotherapy and induces immune responses which correlate highly with long-term survival. Biovest is currently in the process of seeking US and international marketing approvals for .
Headquartered in Tampa, Florida with its bio-manufacturing facility based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Biovest is publicly-traded on the OTCQB™ Market with the stock-ticker symbol “BVTI”, and is a majority-owned subsidiary of Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: “ABPI”).