MabVax Therapeutics Holdings, a San Diego-based clinical stage oncology drug development company, has entered into agreements with New York City’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and Seattle-based Juno Therapeutics for the development of novel therapeutic products using antibody targeting sequences derived from the fully-human antibodies discovered using the company's internally developed antibody discovery platform.

MabVax will supply unique targeting sequences from the fully-human antibodies to MSKCC. Researchers at MSKCC will conduct the early stage R&D of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapeutics using the MabVax antibody sequences and then test them both in vitro and in animal models with the objective of producing anti-cancer therapeutics targeting certain solid tumors.

MabVax and Juno entered into an exclusive option agreement giving Juno the right to negotiate a license agreement for exclusive rights to any CAR T-cell therapeutic products using the antibody sequences provided to MSKCC.

J. David Hansen, CEO of MabVax, said, "We think that the human targeting sequences derived from our antibody program and incorporated into the very unique and promising CAR T-cell technology developed at MSKCC holds real promise for patients suffering from certain solid tumor cancers.”

MabVax's antibody discovery effort has resulted in a pipeline of fully human antibodies to eleven separate cancer targets consistently overexpressed on solid tumor cancers. The lead antibody 5B1 also is the focus of a $1.5 million NIH contract to develop a radiolabeled version of the antibody as a novel PET imaging agent for pancreatic cancer.