New York, New York — The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) announced today that it has brought together the Cancer Vaccine Consortium, a program of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and the Cancer Vaccine Collaborative, a program of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), to form the leading initiative on cancer vaccines. This joint effort establishes a unified voice in the cancer vaccine field and provides a major new resource to academia, industry, and governmental agencies involved in cancer vaccine discovery and development.
The Cancer Vaccine Consortium, now administered by the Cancer Research Institute, is an international association of 67 pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academic institutions engaged in cancer vaccine and immunotherapy research and development. The Cancer Vaccine Collaborative is a coordinated global network of 22 academic clinical and laboratory centers with strong immune monitoring capabilities and the capacity to conduct early-phase clinical trials.
Linking these programs under a single organization offers great synergism for academic and industrial collaboration and provides improved capabilities for all its members. Together, the two programs aim to address the needs of the immunotherapy community with the goal to accelerate discovery and development, and facilitate regulatory discussions about cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies.
The objectives and activities of the new Cancer Vaccine Consortium will encompass:
- Hosting scientific conferences and workshops on cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies to facilitate knowledge exchange;
- Forming alliances with academic and industrial organizations across the globe to further accelerate progress;
- Facilitating ongoing dialogue with regulatory bodies to help develop needed standards for evaluating cancer immunotherapies;
- Developing and standardizing methodologies for measuring the immune response to cancer vaccination and establishing surrogate biological markers for therapeutic benefits;
- Managing the production and acquisition of reagents for clinical trials of cancer vaccines;
- Continuing support of the existing international network of academic laboratory and clinical investigators conducting early-phase cancer vaccine trials aimed at learning how to effectively immunize against cancer.
Lloyd J. Old, M.D., chairman of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, director of the Cancer Research Institute Scientific Advisory Council, and director of the CRI/LICR Cancer Vaccine Collaborative, will also serve as director of the CRI Cancer Vaccine Consortium and chairman of its Executive Committee. Axel Hoos, M.D., Ph.D., medical lead in Immuno-Oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and former president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Cancer Vaccine Consortium, will serve as co-chairman of the Cancer Vaccine Consortium Executive Committee.
“The time is ripe for stronger alliances between academia and industry,” says Dr. Old. “Integrating the clinical trials network of the CRI/LICR Cancer Vaccine Collaborative with the strengths of the pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic membership of the Sabin Cancer Vaccine Consortium will allow the Cancer Research Institute to present a single, united front on cancer vaccines to the scientific and medical communities. This alignment strengthens the overall position of all of its participants and establishes a unified voice that can represent the needs of a broader constituency.”
Dr. Hoos anticipates that the joint effort will play a key role in facilitating knowledge exchange and creating a fertile environment for advances in cancer immunotherapy. “The Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Cancer Vaccine Consortium had very successfully begun to address issues of clinical paradigm development, immune assay harmonization, and regulatory dialogue,” Dr. Hoos says. “Based on the Consortium’s track record of bringing stakeholders together, identifying needs, and addressing them through focused initiatives, the alliance with CRI promises growth and delivery of further concrete solutions, which can be adopted widely.”
The Cancer Research Institute has fostered the fields of immunology and tumor immunology over the past 54 years through the provision of research and training grants to academic investigators, and dedicates approximately 35 percent of its annual research budget to the support of cancer vaccine research. “By incorporating the Sabin Vaccine Institute’s Cancer Vaccine Consortium into the Cancer Research Institute’s clinical investigation efforts, we are expanding CRI’s reach and ability to deliver accelerated progress in this growing field,” says Jill O’Donnell-Tormey, Ph.D., executive director of the Cancer Research Institute. “That should be very appealing to the Institute’s donors who wish to make an impact on cancer with measurable outcomes that can be realized within a short period of time,” she adds.
Cancer Research Institute Web site:
www.cancerresearch.org
Cancer Vaccine Collaborative Web site:
www.cancerresearch.org/cancervaccinecollaborative
Cancer Vaccine Consortium Web site:
www.cancerresearch.org/cancervaccineconsortium
About the Cancer Research Institute
The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) is the world’s only non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to the support and coordination of scientific and clinical efforts that will lead to the immunological treatment, control, and prevention of cancer. Guided by a world-renowned Scientific Advisory Council that includes five Nobel Prize winners and thirty members of the National Academy of Sciences, CRI supports cutting-edge cancer research at top medical centers and universities throughout the world. The Cancer Research Institute is ushering in a new era of scientific progress, hastening the discovery of effective cancer vaccines and other immune-based therapies that are providing new hope to cancer patients.
The Cancer Research Institute has one of the lowest overhead expense ratios among non-profit organizations, with the majority of its resources going directly to the support of its science, medical, and research programs. This has consistently earned CRI an A grade or higher for fiscal disclosure and efficiency from the American Institute of Philanthropy and top marks from other charity watchdog organizations. www.cancerresearch.org
Contact: Brian Brewer, Director of Communications, Cancer Research Institute
(212) 688-7515 or bbrewer@cancerresearch.org