Ziopharm Oncology and MD Anderson Cancer Enter R&D Agreement

Ziopharm Oncology (NASDAQ:ZIOP) has announced it has entered into a research and development agreement with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

As quoted in the press release:

“We are delighted to deepen our relationship with MD Anderson, which provides treatment to a large and diverse population of cancer patients with solid tumors,” said Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Ziopharm. “This new agreement is a launch point to expand our TCR library and execute two new clinical trials; a trial for utilizing TCRs from the library targeting hotspot mutations in KRAS, TP53 and EGFR, and a second trial for personalized TCRs targeting patient-specific neoantigens.”

“Cell-based immunotherapies have emerged as a powerful new option for treating patients with hematological cancers, but we have not yet had the same success for patients with solid tumors,” said Ferran Prat, Ph.D., J.D., senior vice president for Research Administration and Industry Ventures at MD Anderson. “We are pleased to be working with Ziopharm to advance a new generation of cell therapies, and we are hopeful they can one day be effective in treating a broader group of our patients.”

Under the terms of the new agreement, Ziopharm commits to fund an additional $20 million for this expanded work in the TCR-T program through 2023, as well as certain milestone payments for clinical development or regulatory approval in the U.S., European Union, Japan and the rest of the world. The funding for this new agreement was included within the budget forecast provided by Ziopharm in its second quarter 2019 financial results news release and webcast commentary.

Click here to read the full press release.