Advaxis, Inc.

Advaxis is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing cancer immunotherapies that use the body’s natural immune system to redirect the immune response to kill cancer. For decades, cancer researchers have been trying to stimulate the body’s immune system to identify and kill cancer cells, with the goal of creating a standard “immunologic” treatment against tumors that is more effective and more tolerable than traditional chemotherapy or radiation. Our clinical programs, are evaluating the ability of Advaxis cancer immunotherapies to improve survival and reduce the frequency and severity of side-effects commonly associated with standard chemotherapy and radiation. Advaxis’s technology was discovered at the University of Pennsylvania and is based on live attenuated bioengineered gram positive bacteria that stimulate the patient’s own immune system to selectively target cancer cells for elimination, while reducing tumor defenses in the microenvironment. Capitalizing on the body's ability to still recognize and attack a “perceived” bacterial infection, Advaxis’s technology - like a Trojan Horse - delivers an army of genetically engineered bacteria to “trick” the patient’s immune system into thinking that the cancer cells are bacterially infected cells and should therefore be eliminated. Advaxis is developing the only cancer immunotherapies shown to actively suppress the key components in the tumor microenvironment (Treg’s and MSDCs) that protect the tumor from immunologic attack and contribute to tumor progression.