Rockland Immunochemicals Inc. has announced that it has received a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop generic antibodies “biosimilars” for the treatment of cancer.

Antibody therapy offers treatment for a wide range of diseases, and can extend the life of cancer patients, but the treatment cost is extremely expensive. As patent protection of some current antibodies expires in coming years, there is an opportunity to develop generic and lower priced versions of these therapeutic biologics for the treatment of cancer. To accelerate the development of a generic version of the anti-cancer drugs Herceptin, Rituxan, Zevalin and Erbitux, Rockland will construct vectors of these antibodies.

“Rockland’s antibody technology platform continues to be widely received by the research and Biopharma community,” commented Jim Fendrick, President of Rockland Immunochemicals. “We anticipate continued success in our antibody efforts to discover and develop both novel and existing antibody targets that have broad application in the research, diagnostic and therapeutic markets.”

The biologics developed by Rockland will be effective for antibody therapy. Available as lower priced generic versions of current anti-cancer antibodies, these therapeutics will make the treatment of the disease more affordable and accessible for all cancer patients.