The first AAV-delivered cancer immunotherapy

Imagine directing the liver to become a factory to crank out personalized immunotherapies for most cancers and prevent them from spreading.

Vironexis came out of stealth today with FDA clearance to begin the first-ever clinical trial of an AAV-delivered cancer immunotherapy. By delivering instructions for the body to do continuous manufacturing, it just takes a single dose and is much less expensive than current gene therapies.

FD: we co-led their seed financing. From their press release:“Steve Jurvetson, Co-Founder of Future Ventures, added, ‘We were drawn not only to the novelty of the TransJoin technology but also to its broad applicability, spanning treatments for blood-based cancers, solid tumor metastasis prevention, and cancer vaccines, as well as immune disorders. The versatility of this platform is truly extraordinary.”

And from a great backstory article on the clinical need:
“Vironexis Biotherapeutics' mission seems lofty and impressive — treating cancer with gene therapy. But the heart of the biotech, which emerged from stealth Thursday with $26 million in seed funding, was born from Timothy Cripe's desire to make it a little easier for children with leukaemia to take their medication. As the chief of the division of paediatric haematology and oncology at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Cripe said children often have to receive continuous infusions of bispecific T-cell engagers (BiTEs) that last for weeks due to their short half-life, requiring patients to wear specialised backpacks to carry around a bag of the drug. Hospital visits are frequent to readjust tubing if it slips out, or to replace the syringe. Cripe's idea to eliminate the drug's cumbersome administration was to develop a one-time treatment that would give the liver long-lasting instructions to make the cancer therapy itself.

According to CEO Varma, 90% of deaths caused by cancer can be attributed to metastasis, which occurs when a primary tumour sheds circulating cells. By administering the gene therapy before a tumour has the chance to metastasise, the generated bispecifics act as cancer-killing sentries that patrol the bloodstream for any sign of circulating tumour cells. And if a BiTE finds one, ‘it zaps the cell before it has a chance to embed,’ he described. The company's second-most advanced programme, VNX-202, is slated to enter the clinic next year and is intended to prevent HER2+ breast cancers from metastasising.”

Company site just went live too: vironexis.com

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Taken on: September 12, 2024

Tags:

Vironexis

AAV

immunotherapy

CAR-T

cancer

therapy

metastasis

Treatment « less

Sets appears in: • Weird Science

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