Moffitt Cancer Center and CvergenX, Inc., announced today that they have entered into a licensing agreement under which CvergenX has acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to a technology platform that individualizes radiation therapy, InterveneXRT™. Researchers at Moffitt have used gene expression analysis and systems biology to create a radio-sensitivity classification index for individual tumors.
"While genomic analysis has been applied in the development of diagnostic tools to guide chemotherapy use, this is the first time that the field has expanded to radiation therapy," said Dr. Javier F. Torres-Roca, the radiation oncologist who co-founded CvergenX with Steven A. Eschrich, Ph.D., both Moffitt faculty members. "Radiation therapy has undergone vast changes with significant improvements in imaging and engineering that better direct the treatment, but this level of analysis will truly individualize each treatment, arming oncologists with answers as to when to radiate and how much to radiate — information that has been unavailable until now."
Radiation therapy is prescribed for more than 60 percent of all cancer patients, more than any single chemotherapy agent.
"There has been an unmet need to develop biomarkers that predict response to radiation therapy," said Jarett Rieger, director of the Office of Technology Management and Commercialization at Moffitt. "The cutting-edge and innovative research by Drs. Torres-Roca and Eschrich has led to this incredible breakthrough in the field of personalized medicine. Our office is delighted that CvergenX, a Moffitt faculty startup based in Tampa Bay, will move this biomarker discovery from the laboratory to the clinic to improve patient care."
Based upon seven years of research and more than $2 million in research primarily funded through the National Cancer Institute, the testing platform is undergoing clinical studies for further validation and optimization of its methods. Under the license agreement, CvergenX has agreed to pay Moffitt when various commercialization milestones are reached, as well as royalty payments on the sales of testing services and licensed products.
"The license agreement is one of the key milestones established for the company in 2010," said Mary Del Brady, chairman and CEO of CvergenX. "With the intellectual property fully protected, we are poised to proceed with the commercialization of InterveneXRT™, including studies across multiple disease sites and, later, the opening of an independent advanced diagnostics laboratory. We believe that the individualization of radiation therapy is an important component of personalized cancer treatment."
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