Individually tailored oncolytic virus therapy has been tested in 200 late-stage cancer patients and 18 tumor types.
Oncos Therapeutics completed a €4 million (about $5.29 million) fundraising with HealthCap. The capital will be used to progress formal clinical development of the firm’s lead oncolytic adenovirus candidate, CGTG-102.
The treatment is designed to exploit a gene mutation in the Rb-p16 pathway, which the firm claims is common to all solid tumor cancer cells. It maintains that the modified adenovirus combines the established safety of adenovirus therapies with GM-CSF arming and improved tumor cell transduction via capsid modification.
These features result in high tumor selectivity combined with sustained antitumor immune responses and an acceptable side effect profile, according to Oncos. The firm has been evaluating the product since 2007 through an Advanced Therapy Access Program for eligible cancer patients in whom standard-of-care therapies have failed. To date, this has involved administering the individually tailored oncolytic virus therapy to some 200 patients and 18 different tumor types
“The results have been strong for late-stage solid tumor cancers where routine therapies have failed,” states Akseli Hemminki, Ph.D., CSO and co-founder. “Time is critical in the treatment of cancer. We are confident that when treating earlier-stage patients, our oncolytic virus therapy will prove even more significant.”
