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ARTICLE | Company News

Intensity Therapeutics, NIH deal

June 2, 2014 7:00 AM UTC

Intensity signed a three-year cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with NIH's NCI Vaccine Branch to study the efficacy and mechanism of action of the company's in situ chemovaccination products using in vivo cancer models. Intensity is reformulating existing chemotherapeutics with amphiphilic "enhancer molecules" to improve solubility in lipids and water. Intensity's lead program, INT230-6, is in preclinical testing to treat refractory malignant solid tumors. The product is an intratumoral aqueous solution comprising cisplatin and vinblastine. Under the CRADA, Intensity and the Vaccine Branch will evaluate the processes by which Intensity's products activate immune responses against cancer and possible synergy of the biotech's products with a class of natural killer T cell agonists developed by NCI.

The CRADA is divided into three parts, and the second and third parts proceed only if both parties agree to continue the research. Intensity's initial costs for part one are capped at $50,000; the company's total expenses under the CRADA are capped at $250,000. ...