CEL-SCI Corporation (NYSE AMEX:CVM)
today announced that the Chinese patent office has issued a key patent
covering CEL-SCI's investigational cancer drug, Multikine®
(Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection)*. The patent, Chinese patent number
ZL200480025403.6, is titled, "A Method of Pre-Sensitizing Cancer Prior
to Treatment with Radiation and/or Chemotherapy and a Novel Cytokine
Mixture".
This invention relates to a novel investigational therapy that CEL-SCI
believes has the potential to be a method for pre-sensitizing cancer
with Multikine (Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection) prior to a therapeutic
treatment such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy or immunotherapy.
Clinical studies conducted to date on CEL-SCI's investigational drug
Multikine (Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection) indicate its potential to
be able to induce cancerous cells' entry into the cell cycle phase
thereby possibly increasing their vulnerability to chemotherapy and
radiation therapy. Further research is required and underway in an
effort to confirm these results. In the ongoing Phase III clinical
study, Multikine (Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection) is administered to
patients receiving this investigational therapy ahead of surgery,
radiation and chemotherapy, in advanced primary (not yet treated) head
and neck cancer.
Multikine (Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection) is an investigational
immunotherapeutic agent consisting of a mixture of naturally occurring
cytokines, including interleukins, interferons, chemokines and
colony-stimulating factors, currently being developed for treatment of
head and neck cancer.
CEL-SCI's Phase III clinical trial is an open-label, randomized,
controlled, multi-center study designed to determine if Multikine
(Leukocyte Interleukin, Injection) administered prior to current
standard of care (Surgery plus Radiotherapy or Surgery plus Concurrent
Radiochemotherapy) used for treatment naive (yet untreated) subjects
with Advanced Primary Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oral Cavity/Soft
Palate (Head and Neck cancer) will result in an increased overall rate
of survival versus the subjects treated with standard of care only. It
is the first trial in which immunotherapy will be administered before
any other traditional means of care are attempted.