Download Ascend SAFC Press Release - Ascend Biopharmaceuticals

MEDIA RELEASE
ASCEND SIGNS MANUFACTURING AGREEMENT
9 July 2013: Ascend Biopharmaceuticals has signed an agreement with Sigma-Aldrich for its custom
manufacturing and services business unit, SAFC, to perform fill, finish and release of ASN-002, a novel
cancer immunotherapy. SAFC is one of the leading virus contract manufacturers in the world.
Ascend Biopharmaceuticals CEO Clement Leong said the contract will allow Sigma-Aldrich to produce
ASN-002 enabling Ascend to commence Phase II Clinical Trials later in the year. Ascend is initially
focused on developing ASN-002 as a treatment for basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common skin
cancer in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Currently, surgery is the main treatment for BCC; however, it
can often be difficult and complex when the cancer occurs around the face, nose, eyes and ears and
there is an important need for an effective non-surgical alternative treatment for these patients.
“SAFC is one of the few contract manufacturers in the world with extensive experience working with
adenoviral products such as ASN-002.”
“As a significant global firm, SAFC is an ideal partner allowing Ascend to rapidly commence ASN-002
clinical studies, but they can also scale to our later stage clinical study needs and ultimately
commercialization needs if the studies prove successful.”
-ENDSFor more information, please contact:
Clement Leong
Ascend Biopharmaceuticals, CEO
T: + 61 3 8606 3401
E: [email protected]
Kyahn Williamson
Buchan Consulting
T: + 613 9866 4722 / 040 101 8828
E: [email protected]
About Ascend Biopharmaceuticals
Ascend Biopharmaceuticals is developing immunotherapy products for the treatment of cancer. These
immunotherapy products harness the body’s own immune system - the body’s natural safeguard against infection
- to selectively destroy cancer cells. Immunotherapy is an emerging area of cancer treatment that has the potential
to deliver safer and more effective treatment regime than those currently available.
Ascend’s two clinical stage products, are both focused on using the immune system to treat cancer, but in very
different ways.
ASN-002, a treatment designed for delivery into the cancer micro-environment will enter Phase II clinical studies in
skin cancer patients in 2013. ASN-004, a cancer vaccine, based on a clinically validated platform from Melbourne’s
Burnet Institute, is being developed as treatment for metastatic breast cancer and will return to the clinic in 2014
for initiation of a Phase Ib study.
Ascend has a pipeline of promising pre-clinical assets which represent a technological leap in gene therapy and in
particular, how vaccines, cancer therapies and gene replacements are delivered to the body.