Biotechs See Promise In Viral Treatments For Cancer

Venture-backed companies are leading a push to enlist viruses in the war on cancer.

Companies such as BioVex Inc., Jennerex Inc. and Neotropix Inc. are seeing promising results from research into viral therapies that infect and destory cancer cells. A viral treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer earned approval in China in 2005, but BioVex is poised to bring the first such drug to the U.S.

In November, BioVex said it saw complete disease eradication in several advanced-melanoma patients involved in a Phase II clinical study. The company, now running Phase III trials, aims to file for regulatory approval next year.

BioVex and its rivals say they’ve found ways to use viruses to kill tumors without harming healthy cells, and without causing infectious disease. The potential for this approach is large, these companies contend. Neotropix, for example, has identified nearly 100 viruses that can kill various cancer cells, said Chief Executive Peter Lanciano.

“My sense is there are many of these types of viruses that can directly affect solid tumors as well as blood-based cancers,” Lanciano said.

The most advanced of these new viral drugs is BioVex’s OncoVEX-GM-CSF, which is injected into tumors. The virus replicates in cancer cells, which rupture. The drug also sparks an immune system attack against un-injected metastatic cells.

In the Phase II study of patients with stage III and stage IV melanoma, 20% of participants had a complete response – disease elimination – and 28% had either a complete or a partial response, according to the company, based in Woburn, Mass. Survival rates are generally poor for these advanced melanoma cases.

The drug’s promise enabled BioVex to complete a $70 million financing in November, bringing its total funding to $150 million. Next year it will look to go public or form a partnership to support product launch, said CEO Philip Astley-Sparke. Its investors include Avalon Ventures, Forbion Capital Partners, MVM Life Science Partners and Triathlon Medical Ventures.

San Francisco-based Jennerex’s lead drug also triggers a systemic immune-system assault on tumors. The drug, now in Phase II studies for primary liver cancer and colorectal cancer, showed good safety and efficacy in a Phase I study of various common cancers, according to the company, whose investors include Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation.

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Source: Wall Street Journal