Hartford Business Journal

12 Hartford Business Journal • May 8, 2017 www.HartfordBusiness.com Business Loans & Lines of Credit Checking & Savings Solutions • Cash Management Services Visit chelseagroton.com/growthatbusiness or call 860-448-4203 to learn how we can grow that business of yours together. 273 Hebron Avenue, Glastonbury, CT and locations throughout New London County When you have the right bank for your business, you'll never have to grow alone. REDEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY MONSON DEVELOPMENT CENTER – FOR SALE The sale and redevelopment of a portion of the former Monson Development Center presents an exciting opportunity to create a unique mixed-use development to support a mainly rural economy (and expanding light industrial economy) in the village-like historic Town of Monson. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is seeking responses to the Request for Proposal (RFP) for the purchase and sale of a portion of this state-owned property. Please refer to the RFP for site tour and specific submission requirements. MONSON DEVELOPMENT CENTER: • 256+/- acres for sale — bid on entire site or an Area • Historic property may be eligible for federal and state Historic Tax Credits • Town supports mixed use development • Adjacent to hundreds of acres of protected agricultural and recreation land • Includes undeveloped rail spur TO OBTAIN THE RFP: www.mass.gov/DCAMM/Monson2017 from page 1 "The idea is to give [patients] the vac- cine after they've had their surgery and chemotherapy and see if we can prolong the time to recurrence or cure them alto- gether," said Srivastava, 61, director of the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center and Center for Immuno- therapy of Cancer and Infectious Diseas- es at UConn Health, where he's worked since 1997. Because ovarian cancer tends to recur predictably within a period of time, doc- tors can gauge the vaccine's effectiveness in fending off the disease, said Dr. Susan Tannenbaum, chief of the Division of Hematology & Oncology at the Neag can- cer center, who will lead the clinical trial. Srivastava's personalized immuno- therapy technology uses genomic analy- sis, which studies an individual's unique DNA, to identify differences between a woman's healthy and cancerous tissue. A vaccine is then created to boost the patient's immune system and target the cancerous cells. For a woman whose immune system is fighting, the vaccine aims to make it fight better; for a woman whose immune system isn't fighting, the vaccine will make it fight, Srivastava said. "We make the vaccine based on each patient's tumor and immune composition. It's made for that woman from that wom- an's tumor information," Srivastava said. The clinical trial is the world's first for a personalized ovarian cancer vaccine, according to Srivastava. Advancements in genomic and comput- er analysis have made such targeted medi- cine possible, Srivastava said, noting each person has a genomic book in their body of six billion characters. "So we take those six billion characters, the normal and the [tumor-inflicted ones], and we compare them and we say, 'ah, these are the ones' " that are most useful in help- ing determine which cells to target with the vaccine, he said. Srivastava and his team create the individualized vaccine using samples of a patient's own DNA from both unhealthy cancer cells and healthy blood cells. Scientists then sequence and cross-refer- ence the entire DNA from both sources to pin- point the most important genetic differences and then design the personalized vaccine — with the help of bioinformatics scientists, led by Ion Mandoiu of UConn's School of Comput- er Sciences and Engineering — to target spe- cific genetic mutations of patients' cancerous cells, according to UConn Health. Clinical trial Successful tests in mice preceded U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for human testing. UConn is recruiting 15 women for the phase one trial — set to begin this month — who have their first diagnosis of ovarian cancer or first recurrence. Once a patient meets eligibility requirements, she'd have surgery to remove the tumor, followed by chemotherapy. During that roughly three- to four-month treatment, the key genetic mutations would be identified and the vac- cine would be formulated. After chemo recovery, the first patient would be vaccinated once a month, starting about Aug. 1, for six months, with blood drawn monthly to determine immune response. Future patients would follow the same rou- tine, with the goal of adding about one patient a month to the trial over about 15 months. "First thing we want to see is that it is safe," Srivastava said of the trial, then see if it's feasible, if there's an immune response or not and how long it takes for recurrence. Assuming positive results, Srivastava would seek approval for a larger, random- ized clinical trial that could take about four years and hopefully demonstrate effective- ness for approval to go to market. The market potential is significant. "My thought would be that the market penetration for something like this would be pretty high because there's huge demand and there's not much else available right now," Srivastava said. Assuming 20,000 new ovarian cancer cases a year with 15,000 of those in advanced stage, and conservatively assuming 20 per- cent market penetration, that's 3,000 treat- ments. Conservatively estimating $100,000 per treatment, that's $300 million. "This by itself would be a huge business opportunity," including for UConn and the state, he said. The opportunity soars if the technol- ogy proves successful in trials against other cancers. "In principle, this will apply to the big cancers — like breast, prostate, lung, colon, stomach — and so this trial is important not only for the market side of [ovarian cancer], but other much, much bigger [can- cers]," Srivastava said. He's talking with two potential investors about forming a company, in part, to raise capital for continuing R&D work. Money raised so far includes $3 million from the Neags, $500,000 from Connecticut Innovations (CI) — the state's quasi-public venture arm — and about $200,000 from the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science at UConn (CICATS). CI committed funding last July. Half has been granted, with the balance contingent upon Srivastava reaching certain targets. Successful technologies can gener- ate licensing revenues for UConn and CI, Clinical trial tests vaccine's

• Cover