Morphotek links with University of Gothenburg to develop farletuzumab

USA-based Morphotek, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese drug major Eisai (TYO: 4523), has entered into an agreement with the Targeted Alpha Therapy Group (TAT Group) at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden to collaborate on the research and development of farletuzumab as an alpha therapy vector being studied for radioimmunotherapy in ovarian cancer.

"We are excited to enter this collaboration with the TAT Group in this innovative field of radioimmunotherapy research," stated Charles Schweizer, vice president of clinical operations at Morphotek. "We continue our commitment to explore product development strategies that may potentially generate clinically meaningful improvements over current treatment options for ovarian cancer patients. This alpha-radiolabeled version of farletuzumab complements our current strategy of treating patients with relapsed, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer with low CA125," Dr Schweizer added.

Farletuzumab is currently being tested in a clinical study in first-relapsed, platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer patients with low CA125 levels. The double-blind, randomized-controlled study is designed to prospectively evaluate the clinical effects observed in the previously conducted Phase 3 trial in the pre-specified subset of patients treated with farletuzumab exhibiting low CA125 levels.