September 30, 2013 -- UbiVac(http://www.ubivac.com/About.html), a privately-held, clinical stage immunotherapy company, founded and based in Portland, Oregon, won the top honors as the 2013 Presenting Company last week at the Oregon Bioscience Association’s (https://www.oregonbio.org/) annual meeting. UbiVac won for its Product and Investment Potential presentation.
“UbiVac researches and develops therapeutic vaccines to combat cancer,” say company founder and internationally known immunologist Bernard A. Fox Ph.D. “Our company is unique because we have licensed platform technologies from three research Institutions in Oregon and are working with the inventors and National Cancer Institute-trained (NCI) clinical investigators to rapidly translate and evaluate the effectiveness of these immunotherapy strategies in patients with cancer.” The three local research institutions comprise Providence, Portland State University and Oregon Health & Science University.
“UbiVac is honored to be the recipient,” said Dr. Fox,UbiVac’s(http://www.ubivac.com/About.html) CEO. “We see this as further validation of our first-in-class agents, invented and produced in Portland, and our efforts to develop effective immunotherapy for patients with cancer. In addition to our DRibble technology, the nanotech and disabled-CMV cancer vaccine platforms that UbiVac is developing hold great promise for improving outcomes of patients with cancer.”
He adds, “It shows we have made an effective case about the value and the investment-worthiness of our first-in-class cancer immunotherapies.”
“UbiVac has been and remains an important member of Oregon’s growing bio-economy,” said Oregon Bio’s (https://www.oregonbio.org/) Executive Director Dennis McNannay. “It has been extraordinarily successful in collaborations with both local and international researchers as well as garnering national attention and funding. UbiVac is a real, local success story in many ways.”
In addition to industry validation, UbiVac as the overall winner will also receive $1,500 of donated legal services from Alleman Hall McCoy Russell & Tuttle, LLP (http://www.ahmrt.com/), an intellectual propertylaw firm with patent attorneys in Portland, Oregon and Kobe, Japan.
According to the company, Ubivac recently received an NCI Phase l grant from the federal SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) to develop a nanotechnology-based vaccine for HPV-induced cancers, including cervical and HPV, and cancers of the upper body such as Head Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma. “The technology, published by collaborators in the prestigious journalNature Nanotechnology, is an exciting advance in nano-based vaccines, with this project as a collaboration between the Portland State University and the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute,” said Dr. Fox. He added that in their efforts, researchers will seek to initiate a Phase I clinical trial in 2015.
Second and third place winners included Wellero and 13Therapeutics, respectively. Wellero ™ is part of, and backed financially by Cambia Health Solutions.
The company presentations were part of Oregon Bioscience Association’s 2013 annual conference (https://www.oregonbio.org/events/annual-conference-2013), which commenced last week and was themed ‘The Economics of Life Sciences. Keynote and featured speakers included nationally renowned thought leaders (https://www.oregonbio.org/keynote-speakers) in the innovation economy, product and therapeutic development,industry funding, scientific breakthrough research and health reform from companies and organizations such as The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Galena Biopharma, Genentech, GNS Healthcare, Cambia Health Solutions, Zoomcare Inc., and Neolac.
Said Oregon Bioscience Association’s (https://www.oregonbio.org/) Executive Director, Dennis McNannay, “Attending company executives such as Dr. Fox met one-on-one with prospective investment partnering companies while learning more about the deep pool of research expertise, facilities and specialized equipment Oregon offers through its bioscience-based signature research institute, OTRADI (www.otradi.org), other signature research centers, and university-based programs.”
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About Oregon Bioscience Association
The Oregon Bioscience Association (https://www.oregonbio.org/) advocates for its members and the industry to create opportunity through community, collaboration and commercialization. Oregon Bio, a nonprofit membership association, is the Oregon affiliate of BIO, Biotechnology Industry Organization (http://www.bio.org/), which found in 2012 that Oregon’s jobs in biotech grew faster than most other U.S. markets. The association’s most current economic impact studyhttp://www.oregonbio.org/BioinOregon/IndustryReports/tabid/120/Default.aspx) showed that Oregon has 749 bioscience establishments and 13 life science research institutions generating a cumulative $7.1 billion in economic activity, 36,800 jobs, $1.9 billion in personal income and $273.9 million in local and state tax revenues. More about the Oregon Bioscience Association can be found atwww.oregonbio.org.
