Date: 2017-12-06
Type of information: Development agreement
Compound: oncolytic virus candidates encoding an anti-CTLA-4 antibody sequence
Company: BioInvent (Sweden) Transgene (France)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: development
Action mechanism:
- oncolytic virus. Encoding BioInvent’s anti-CTLA-4 antibody sequence in Transgene’s latest improved Vaccinia virus, promises to optimize the efficacy of this potent checkpoint inhibitor, while reducing the side effects seen when it is given systemically. There is also the potential for this novel oncolytic virusproduct to be significantly more effective than the combination of these single agents. Transgene has generated preclinical proof-of-concept data showing that an oncolytic vaccinia virus encoded with a checkpoint inhibitor demonstrated better overall survival than the corresponding combination as separate single agents.
Disease:
Details:
- • On December 6, 2017, BioInvent and Transgene have entered a collaboration to co-develop next generation oncolytic virus (OV) candidates encoding an anti-CTLA-4 antibody sequence - potentially with additional transgenes - capable of treating multiple solid tumors. Under the terms of the agreement Transgene will contribute both its OV design and engineering expertise as well as its proprietary engineered Vaccinia virus, derived from its Invir.IOTM platform. These oncolytic viruses are designed to directly and selectively destroy cancer cells by the intracellular replication of the virus in the cancer cell (oncolysis). Oncolysis is important as it induces an immune response against tumors (immunogenic lysis). In addition, the replication of the virus allows the expression of the genes carried by the oncolytic viral genome including therapeutic “weapons” that have been specifically designed to attack the tumor.
- BioInvent will provide its cancer biology and antibody expertise to the collaboration as well as anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody
coding sequences, generated through its proprietary n-CoDeR/FIRST platforms, which will be encoded from in Transgene’s Invir.IOTM viral vectors. The local expression of such therapeutic payloads in the cancer cell is expected to augment the anti-cancer effects of viral oncolysis, by efficiently modulating the tumor micro-environment and increasing the immunogenicity of the tumor.
Financial terms:
- The collaboration’s research and development costs, as well as the revenues and royalties from candidates generated by the collaboration, will be shared 50:50.
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Is general: Yes
