BIOCAD to produce innovative anti-angiogenic drug

Sept. 18, 2013 - PRLog -- CJSC BIOCAD has won a competitive grant from the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation for the transfer of technology to produce an innovative biological drug for treatment of cancer.

The initial concept, characterization and drug development ​​took place under the direction of Michael G. Rosenblum, Ph.D. in the Clayton Foundation for Research Laboratory at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX), the largest Cancer Research Center in the United States. BIOCAD entered into a licensing agreement through the Foundation for further development, clinical trials and the subsequent production of the drug.

The product is a fusion protein consisting of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and the plant toxin, gelonin. Its effect is irreversible blockade of protein biosynthesis resulting in destruction of new blood vessels developing in tumors. This unique structure allows targeted cytotoxic activity specifically against tumor vasculature.

According to Dr. Roman Ivanov, Vice President of BIOCAD’s Research & Development,

"The drug has no direct analogue and overcomes the major mechanisms of resistance to anti-angiogenic drugs. It is expected to be highly effective when used in combination with standard chemotherapy regimens in metastatic cancers and may also be effective when used as monotherapy. "

The major part of the pre-clinical assessment has already been completed. These results confirm that the drug activity is directed solely against tumor blood vessels, and that the drug is able to significantly inhibit the growth and spread of tumors, and reduce the size of metastases. It has been shown that the drug is not toxic to healthy vascular tissue.

Within the context of the joint project for the preclinical and clinical development of the innovative anti-angiogenic drug, additional pre-clinical testing will be carried out, and all phases of clinical studies of a new drug in cancer patients will be implemented.

BIOCAD is a Russian fully integrated biopharmaceutical company focused on development and commercialization of products for the Russian, CIS and other key emerging markets across the globe. BIOCAD maintains all functions in-house, ranging from discovery to commercial scale manufacturing to sales and marketing. BIOCAD’s pipeline is focused on biosimilar and next-in-class monoclonal antibodies.

BIOCAD’s core competency and competitive advantage is its biologics expertise, including the development and manufacturing of products that utilize bacterial and mammalian based cell culture techniques. BIOCAD has developed significant in-house expertise across all functional areas, allowing it to be almost 100% self-sufficient in terms of moving a product from the lab all the way to commercialization.

BIOCAD is headquartered in Neudorf, a suburb of St. Petersburg, Russia, and maintains additional manufacturing and R&D facilities in the Moscow region. The Company has additional offices in several countries across the globe, including the US, Ukraine, China, India and Brazil. BIOCAD was founded in 2001, and employs approximately 750 people.