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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
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FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
February 18, 1998
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported)
AVAX TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware 000-29222 13-3575874
(State or other jurisdiction (Commission File Number) (IRS Employer
of incorporation) Identification Number)
4520 Main Street
Suite 930
Kansas City, MO 64111
(Address of principal executive offices)
(816) 960-1333
(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)
Page 1 of 5 Pages
Exhibit Index Appears at Page 5
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Item 5. Other Events
AVAX Technologies, Inc. (the "Company") has announced that its
experimental vaccine, O-Vax(TM), induced immune responses in a small study of
women with advanced ovarian cancer. The study was sponsored by the Company and
conducted at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Reference is made to the Company's related press release attached
hereto as Exhibit 99.5 and incorporated by reference herein (including without
limitation the information set forth in the cautionary statement contained in
the final paragraph of the press release).
Item 7. Financial Statements, Pro Forma Financial Statements and Exhibits
(c) Exhibits:
99.5 Press Release dated February 18, 1998.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
AVAX TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Date: February 19, 1998
By: /s/ Jeffrey M. Jonas
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Name: Jeffrey M. Jonas, M.D.
Title: President and
Chief Executive Officer
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Exhibit Index
Exhibit Number Description
- -------------- -----------
99.5 Press Release dated February 18, 1998.
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EXHIBIT 99.5
Contact Jeffery M. Jonas, MD Thomas Redington
Chief Executive Officer 203/222-7399
816/960-1333 212/926-1733
AVAX Reports On Initial Results
For Potential Ovarian Cancer Vaccine
The First Round Of Tests Show
Therapy Can Successfully Stimulate Immunity
KANSAS CITY, MO FEB. 18 - AVAX Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVXT)
said its experimental vaccine induced immune responses in a small but
potentially important study of women with advanced ovarian cancer.
The eleven-patient study, which was sponsored by AVAX and conducted
at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) in Philadelphia, was designed to see if
custom-designed autologous vaccines would trigger an immune response to the
patients' own ovarian cancer cells.
The results were presented last week to the Society of Gynecologic
Oncologists (SGO) meeting in Orlando, FL.
In his presentation to the SGO, Charles J. Dunton, MD, co-author of
the study and associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at TJU, said,
"The majority of the patients developed an immune response to their own ovarian
cancer cells," as measured by DTH (delayed-type hypersensitivity) response.
The study's co-author is David Berd, MD, professor of medicine at
TJU's Kimmel Cancer Center and chairman of AVAX's Scientific Advisory Board. Dr.
Berd is the inventor of the vaccine technology. The vaccine is autologous,
meaning that it's prepared from a patient's own cancer cells. Each vaccine is
custom-made for the patient. Before injecting the cells into patients, the cells
are inactivated and treated with a chemical, dinitrophenyl, which chemically
modifies them. The modified cells apparently appear foreign enough to the body's
immune system for it to react against them. The treatment has been safe in this
initial group of patients, with no significant side effects noted, Dr. Dunton
said.
AVAX Technologies of Kansas City, MO has an exclusive worldwide
license to TJU's patented autologous vaccine against all types of cancer. It has
built a Class 10,000 "clean room" vaccine laboratory to increase quantities of
the vaccine for future testing and use.
Jeffrey M. Jonas, MD, president and chief executive officer of AVAX,
commented, "We are encouraged by these preliminary results for O-Vax(TM), the
company's vaccine for ovarian cancer. We believe that these developments further
demonstrate AVAX's ability to apply the autologous cell vaccine technology to a
second form of cancer in addition to our vaccine for melanoma. The study
continues to demonstrate that the technology can elicit an active immune
response against ovarian cancer. This is a necessary first step in our program
for developing a family of products for treating cancer and other
life-threatening diseases."
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AVAX Technologies is a development-stage biopharmaceutical company
that acquires rights to and is developing technologies and products for the
treatment of cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The company has focused
its initial efforts primarily on the development of immunotherapies and
chemotherapies for cancer. Immunotherapy is a rapidly developing segment of the
cancer therapeutic market.
Statements in this news release that are not strictly historical,
including statements as to plans and objectives, are "forward-looking"
statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although AVAX Technologies believes
that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are
reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations will prove to be
correct. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from AVAX
Technologies' expectations include, among others, the company's dependence on
licenses and sponsored research agreements; the ability of the company and
others to clinically develop, manufacture and market the company's
pharmaceutical products; government regulation and approval by the FDA of the
company's products for sale in the US; the company's ability to obtain
additional financing needed for manufacturing, marketing and distribution of the
company's products; the company's access to and the market's acceptance of new
products; a limited public market for the company's stock; possibly price
volatility and illiquidity of the company's stock; as well as the risks,
uncertainties, and other factors described in the company's prospectus and other
documents on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does
not undertake any obligation to publicly release any revisions to these
forward-looking statements or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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