In 2011, NCI and Iovance Biotherapeutics entered into a CRADA for the development of Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) using Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TIL). Technology licenses between NCI and Iovance were established to grant Iovance rights to the NIH’s TIL patent estate. By 2019, Iovance began conducting two pivotal multi-center trials of TIL technology in advanced cervical cancer and metastatic melanoma and has achieved Breakthrough Therapy and Fast Track designations from the FDA in these indications, respectively. These are cancers for which patients have exhausted all other means of treatment and have no options left. In June 2019, Iovance began construction of a state-of-the-art commercial-scale production facility in Philadelphia. The new TIL manufacturing facility is expected to create hundreds of jobs and meet demand.

This technology transfer outcome is rooted from discoveries by Dr. Steven Rosenberg, NCI Surgery Branch, a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy and individually designed “personalized” medicine. Importantly, the initial promise of Dr. Rosenberg’s work to establish TIL technology for the treatment of metastatic melanoma is now being explored in additional TIL trials in other solid tumors that have been initiated by NCI, Iovance and its collaborators. Because of pioneering research and groundbreaking discoveries by NCI’s Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg and his team, NCI’s commitment to translational research, the formation of an effective partnership, the expertise and commitment by Iovance to develop an NCI-licensed technology, and courageous patients who participate in clinical trials, an unprecedented immunotherapy treatment was transferred and has advanced to late-stage clinical development. This innovative treatment has the potential to help thousands of patients a year with deadly and previously untreatable forms of cancer.

Award Recipients:
• NCI Scientific Team: Steven A. Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., Chief, NCI Surgery Branch;
Christian Hinrichs, M.D., Investigator, formerly NCI Experimental Transplantation and
Immunotherapy Branch
• NCI TTC: Aida Cremesti, Ph.D., Senior TTM; Andrew Burke, Ph.D., Senior TTM
• Iovance Biotherapeutics: Maria Fardis, Ph.D. MBA, CEO