CaroGen Corp., in collaboration with a team of scientists at the C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, this week announced that it has made significant progress in developing CARG-2020 for potential treatment of patients with ovarian cancer and other peritoneal tumors.
“We have shown through a number of in vitro and in vivo experiments that CARG-2020-delivering multiple immunomodulators induce broad spectrum immune responses, resulting in prevention of
tumor recurrence and curing the mice with ovarian cancer. CARG-2020 is a potent therapy and could potentially be a game-changer in the field of ovarian cancer immune-oncology. In addition to ovarian cancer, CARG-2020 has the potential to be used as a therapeutic approach for other peritoneal solid tumors,” said Gil Mor, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Mott Center and the John M. Malone Jr., M.D., Endowed Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Wayne State University. Dr. Mor serves as a member of CaroGen’s Scientific Advisory Board.
“CARG-2020, based on the patented AVIDIO (Artificial Virus for Infectious Diseases and Immune-Oncology) technology platform, is an oncolytic vector that delivers an RNA expressing three immuno-modulators, and therefore, working through multiple pathways, induces potent and durable responses in animal models of colorectal and ovarian cancer,” said Bijan Almassian, Ph.D., chief executive officer and co-founder of CaroGen Corp. “We are delighted to collaborate with Professor Mor, a prominent immunologist, to work on the discovery of a novel immunotherapy for ovarian cancer. Our collaboration with Dr. Mor began in 2018 when he was a tenured professor at Yale University School of Medicine.”
Ovarian cancer accounts for most deaths from gynecologic malignancies. Although more than 80% of patients respond to first-line standard of care chemotherapy, most present with recurrence and eventually succumb to carcinomatosis and chemotherapy-resistant disease. To improve patient survival, new modalities are necessary to target residual disease and consequently prevent recurrence.
CaroGen, based in Farmington, Conn., is creating a portfolio of immunotherapies and vaccines for oncology and infectious diseases using its patented AVIDIO immunotherapy platform, discovered at Yale University School of Medicine by renowned virologist John Rose, Ph.D., and licensed by CaroGen for worldwide use. CARG-201. CaroGen also is exploiting its AVIDIO platform technology to create novel immunotherapies for colorectal, ovarian and liver cancers in collaborations with medical researchers at Yale University, the University of Connecticut, Wayne State University and Brown University.