TAMPA, Fla. & MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Biovest International, Inc. (OTCQB: BVTI), a majority-owned subsidiary of Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: ABPI), today announced that BiovaxID®, Biovest's late-stage, autologous, active immunotherapy for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, was featured in a special cancer immunotherapy report published jointly by the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) and MD Becker Partners LLC. The report unites key opinion leaders, analysts and industry executives in highlighting opportunities in the field of cancer immunotherapy.
In the report, Dr. Larry Kwak, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of M.D. Anderson's Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, and named to TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2010 for his development of personalized cancer vaccines, commented on the promise of BiovaxID based on the vaccine's Phase III results, "We do not have a curative therapy for low grade lymphomas, so while rituximab is a great drug - it doesn't cure anybody. Even in combination with chemotherapy, it probably does not cure people with low grade lymphoma. There is currently a need for curative therapy or at least a therapy that prolongs remissions beyond that seen with rituximab, so adding a cancer vaccine in the maintenance setting makes sense. That could very easily be the place for BiovaxID - making it a maintenance therapy after rituximab and chemotherapy get a patient into remission. The reason I think it's a winner for maintenance therapy, even above the other drugs that have been tried in this setting such as lenalidomide, is the superior safety profile that the other agents do not have. That's particularly important for maintenance therapy as opposed to induction or consolidation therapy."
To request a copy of the full CRI/MD Becker report, please visit: http://lifesciencedigest.com/2011/06/30/cancer-immunotherapy-a-roundtable-discussion/
About Biovest International, Inc.
Biovest International, Inc. is an emerging leader in the field of active personalized immunotherapies. In collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, Biovest has developed a patient-specific, cancer vaccine, BiovaxID®, with three clinical trials completed, including a Phase III study, demonstrating evidence of safety and efficacy for the treatment of indolent follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Headquartered in Tampa, Florida with its bio-manufacturing facility based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Biovest is publicly-traded on the OTCQBTM Market with the stock-ticker symbol "BVTI", and is a majority-owned subsidiary of Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: "ABPI").
For further information, please visit: http://www.biovest.com