Philadelphia's Thomas Jefferson University Home to New Facility for Autologous Cell Vaccine

AVAX Technologies, Inc. announced Dec. 8 that it has established a certified processing facility using the company's core AC (autologous cell) Vaccine technology at Thomas Jefferson University's Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia, one of the country's leading cancer research centers.

AC Vaccine technology produces an individualized vaccine immunotherapy using a cancer patient's own tumor cells. The preparation of the vaccine involves removing tumor cells from the patient and modifying them with a small molecule known as a hapten. The product, when administered to the same patient, is believed to stimulate the patient's immune system to prevent regrowth of the cancer.

The TJU facility will initially produce M-Vax, AVAX's therapeutic vaccine for melanoma, which recently entered a Phase III clinical trial. The $200,000 facility, financed by AVAX, will also be used to produce therapeutic vaccines for additional types of cancer under clinical trials, including O-Vax for ovarian cancer. The facility includes cell bank capability and state-of-the-art vaccine processing systems with a Class 10000 clean room which is certified to meet required federal standards.

"Currently this is the country's only human tumor processing facility for autologous cell vaccines which meets federal standards and the first cancer vaccine production facility in the Philadelphia area," noted Dr. David Berd, a clinical oncologist and professor of medicine at Jefferson Medical College and TJU. "This facility will provide AC Vaccine for a portion of the approximately 250 melanoma patients we expect to enroll in the multi-center Phase III trial for M-Vax starting this fall."

Berd is the inventor of the AC Vaccine technology under development by AVAX and chairman of the company's scientific advisory board. AVAX has licensed the exclusive rights to the AC Vaccine technology from Berd and TJU. Berd is serving as senior principal investigator for a Phase III trial of M-Vax and over the past several years has conducted several Phase I/II physician-sponsored clinical trials for the treatment of malignant melanoma using the AC Vaccine at TJU.

AVAX Technologies, Inc., 4520 Main Street, Suite 930, Kansas City, MO 64111. Tel: 816-960-1333, Fax: 816-960-1334.