CEL-SCI grants Multikine licence to Teva
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
CEL-SCI is to tap into Teva's expertise in conducting large-scale clinical studies in granting the company an exclusive licence to its cancer drug Multikine (mixed naturally derived cytokines) in Israel and Turkey. The agreement is initially restricted to head and neck cancer, the indication for which CEL-SCI is seeking to develop Multikine, but Teva can extend the agreement to other cancers during the term of the agreement. Teva is expected to participate in CEL-SCI's upcoming global Phase III trial and will fund a portion of the study and conduct part of it in Israel. Teva will also have responsibility for registering the product there. Once it is approved, CEL-SCI will be responsible for sales, and the two firms will share the revenues from the product. The Phase III trial will enrol 800 head and neck cancer patients to determine if the drug increases their survival before they receive conventional cancer treatment. In Phase II trials, Multikine was shown to be safe and well tolerated and improved patients' survival by 33% at a median of three and a half years following surgery. Head and neck cancer affects about 600,000 people per year, CEL-SCI says.