The September 23 webinar has been recorded. Members of Société can view the webinar here
Over the past several years, immunotherapy—therapies that enlist and strengthen the power of a patient's immune system to attack tumors—has emerged as what many in the cancer community now call the "fifth pillar" of cancer treatment. A rapidly emerging immunotherapy approach is called adoptive cell transfer (ACT): collecting and using patients' own immune cells to treat their cancer. There are several types of ACT, but, thus far, the one that has advanced the furthest in clinical development is called CAR T-cell therapy.
Until recently, the use of CAR T-cell therapy has been restricted to small clinical trials, largely in patients with advanced blood cancers. But these treatments have nevertheless captured the attention of researchers and the public alike because of the remarkable responses they have produced in some patients—both children and adults—for whom all other treatments had stopped working.
In 2017, two CAR T-cell therapies were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), one for the treatment of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and the other for adults with advanced lymphomas. Nevertheless, researchers caution that, in many respects, it’s still early days for CAR T cells and other forms of ACT, including questions about whether they will ever be effective against solid tumors like breast and colorectal cancer.
In just the last few years, progress with CAR T cells and other ACT approaches has greatly accelerated, with researchers developing a better understanding of how these therapies work in patients and translating that knowledge into improvements in how they are developed and tested.
Dr. Carter will share with us his view of what is happening in this important field and what the potential will be for the treatment of different types of cancers. He will also talk about the work that his company is doing to use its proprietary methods to potentially cure glioblastoma, a brain cancer that kills many people in the U.S. and for which there is no cure today.
Peter Young, President of Young & Partners, the chemicals and life science investment bank and of Societe de Chimie Industrielle, will introduce and interview Wayne.
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SPEAKER:
Wayne Carter, CEO and President, TVAX Biomedical
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About our Speaker:
Wayne O. Carter, CEO and President, TVAX Biomedical
Dr. Carter serves as the president and chief executive officer for TVAX Biomedical, a novel cancer immunotherapy company focused on brain cancer and several difficult to treat cancers. He joined TVAX in 2019 and also serves as a member of the Board of Directors.
Prior to that, he served as the president and CEO of BioNexus KC leading the transformation of the Kansas City region into a nationally recognized center of excellence in human and animal health research, development and commercialization. Dr. Carter has more than 18 years of Fortune 500 experience in pharmaceutical and nutrition R&D. In his role at Pfizer as executive director of Global Clinical Technologies, he accelerated the development of many drugs using novel clinical technologies. His board appointments include Acenxion, MRI Global, University of Kansas Center for Research, and the One Health Commission. Dr. Carter received his BS, DVM, and PhD in Immunology from Purdue University. His email address is
wcarter@tvaxbiomedical.com.
TVAX Biomedical
TVAX Biomedical is a mid-late stage cancer immunotherapy company commending a Phase 2b study in glioblastoma in adults for which it has just received Fast Track Designation by the US FDA. Glioblastoma is a form of brain cancer for which there currently is not cure. TVAX has a innovative form of CAR-T or gene therapy that is expected to be effective as a treatment for glioblastoma, but also a new and more cost effective way to execute gene therapy. The company believes TVAX immunotherapy™ is a platform technology as evidenced by the efficacy in multiple tumor types and the fact that all cancers are rendered immunogenic by virtue of their production of neoantigens.