ImmVirX is developing novel oncolytic immunotherapy combinations that harness the power of certain viruses to preferentially infect and kill cancer cells and induce systemic anti-tumour immune responses. Our viral candidates are intended to increase the effectiveness of current immunotherapies in fighting cancers of high unmet need.
Therapeutic Strategy
Powerful New Oncolytic Viruses
Harnessing the immune system to fight cancer has become established as one of the pillars of cancer treatment over the past decade, with the introduction of multiple new immunotherapies designed to activate innate or adaptive immune responses. However, many of these approaches have not proved useful in solid tumors, at least in part due to the immunosuppressive status in the tumour microenvironment (TME).
The goal of oncolytic virotherapy is to overcome immune inhibitions in the TME and thus improve the activity of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) against cancers of high unmet need. ICIs are cornerstone immuno-oncology therapies, among the world's biggest selling drugs.
ImmVirX is developing proprietary oncolytic RNA viruses which have been bio-selected to have the greatest potency and ability to replicate in and subsequently kill target tumour cells rather than healthy cells, leading to the potential generation of specific and adaptive immune responses against cancer. Our goal is to use these viruses to enhance the rate, depth, and durability of response to immune checkpoint therapy.
Specifically, our oncolytic viruses are being developed to:
Highly inflame “cold” tumour types with current low responsiveness to ICI therapy
Infiltrate tumour with immune cells at a high rate
Trigger both innate and adaptive immune responses
Enable synergy with ICI and CAR-T therapies by activating immune stimulating genes, including through the RIG-I pathway
Be well tolerated in patients
Clinical Development
We are targeting cancers with high unmet need, including colorectal, gastric, hepatocellular and ovarian cancer. The Initial clinical programme is assessing our agent in a monotherapy setting, to be followed by studies in combination with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors.
