New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has formed the Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance S.A., the first-ever biotech venture between the U.S. and Cuba.
The joint venture gives Roswell Park access to CIMAvax and three Cuban-developed cancer immunotherapy treatments not previously accessible to U.S. patients or researchers: IL-2 mutein, VSSP and another investigational immunotherapy that targets tumor-associated gangliosides.
While these agents are still investigational therapies in the U.S., evidence to date strongly suggests that all four are worthy of further study in several cancer types.
This joint venture biotech company, Innovative Immunotherapy Alliance S.A., will be based in Cuba and will be operated jointly by CIM’s commercial affiliate, CIMAB S.A., and by a Roswell Park subsidiary, GBCT II LLC.
This initiative will move forward in accordance with permissions issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of Treasury, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. FDA.
Roswell Park expects to initiate additional clinical trials, enrolling more than 100 patients in the U.S. within the next three years with plans for additional clinical studies to follow. Nearly $4 million in donations is funding Roswell Park’s initial CIMAvax clinical trials.
Aside from CIMAvax, these cancer drugs have never been studied before in U.S. patients. The Cuban phase II and phase III clinical trials of CIMAvax have shown increased overall survival and improvement in quality of life for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
