Ocean Biomedical Announces Positive Preclinical Oncology Data for VRON-0300

Ocean Biomedical, Inc. recently announced its joint venture partner, Virion Therapeutics, LLC, recently presented highly compelling preclinical oncology data at the annual meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, SITC 2023.

These new data demonstrate complete and highly reproducible tumor clearance, and protection upon tumor rechallenge, months after animals cleared their initial tumors. A markedly improved immunogenicity was also demonstrated, with a 10-fold increase in T cell responses. VRON-0300 IND-enabling activities are underway, with the goal of filing its first IND within the next 9 months.

Caption: gD BTLA-HVEM Blockade Enhances and Broadens T Cell Activation (www.VirionTx.com)

Virion Therapeutics is developing novel immunotherapies that utilize proprietary genetically encoded checkpoint modifiers (CPMs) to enhance and broaden CD8⁺ T cells responses.

Preclinical studies using CPMs have shown consistent and extraordinary immune responses and clinical activity in different diseases. In addition to the recently presented oncology data, Virion has recently begun enrolling their Phase 1b clinical trial for persons with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV):

VRON-0200 for Chronic Hepatitis B Virus (HBV): VRON-0200 is being developed with the goal of providing a functional cure for a disease that affects over 300 million patients worldwide. It has been designed to help overcome a key cause of chronic HBV, immune exhaustion, by stimulating a patient’s own immune response to help control the infection. Virion believes that this novel mechanism, using CPMs, is a different approach to anything previously investigated – or currently in development – by others. VRON-0200, has already achieved its first patients dosed, in their multi-national, first-in-humans study, with early clinical readouts expected in the first quarter of 2024. According to Precedence Research, functional cure for chronic HBV represents an estimated market opportunity of $6.5B+ by 2032.

“The initiation of our first clinical trial, for VRON-0200, represents a major milestone in Virion’s mission of bringing innovative immunotherapies to patients with cancer and chronic infectious diseases,” said Virion’s CEO, Dr. Andrew Luber. “Enhancing and expanding a patient’s own immune responses, by targeting T cell activation, via checkpoint modification, is unique to Virion, and these first data in humans will provide useful information for our proprietary platform technologies and pipeline, including VRON-0300, which is in development for patients with advanced solid tumors. These clinical milestones and new data have generated a high level of interest from potential stakeholders and industry partners, for both our VRON-0200 and VRON-0300 programs.”

In addition to the recent major clinical and scientific milestones achieved through its Joint Venture partner, Ocean continues to advance immunotherapies for lung, brain, and other cancers by targeting chitinase 3-like-1 expression (CHi3L1) and continues to progress additional development programs in fibrosis and for the treatment, and prevention, of malaria.

Anti-cancer programs by targeting CHi3L1: Ocean’s co-scientific founder, Jack Elias, MD, and his colleagues at Yale and Brown Universities recently published data (bioRxiv reprint) showing its cancer immunotherapy antibody candidate that targets CHi3L1 has demonstrated effective tumor reduction against an aggressive subset of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) with Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) mutations. By suppressing CHi3L1 activity, this treatment demonstrated a stunning ability to restore therapeutic sensitivity to current tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapies after resistance sets in, including the third generation TKI, Osimertinib (marketed as Tagrisso by AstraZeneca). In addition, recent studies have demonstrated up to 95% reduction in primary and metastatic tumor burden in mouse models of lung cancer.

“I am excited about these major milestones through our Joint Venture with Virion, and Ocean’s progress through our pipeline,” said Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, Ocean’s Executive Chairman and co-founder. “These recent inflection points enhance the current and future potential value of our company, and we are excited for upcoming clinical data from the Joint Venture and other strategic activities for Ocean.”

Ocean Biomedical, Inc. is a Providence, RI-based biopharma company with an innovative business model that accelerates the development and commercialization of scientifically compelling assets from research universities and medical centers. Ocean Biomedical deploys the funding and expertise to move new therapeutic candidates efficiently from the laboratory to the clinic to the world. Ocean Biomedical is currently developing five promising discoveries that have the potential to achieve life-changing outcomes in lung cancer, brain cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, and the prevention and treatment of malaria. The Ocean Biomedical team is working on solving some of the world’s toughest problems, for the people who need it most. For more information, visit www.oceanbiomedical.com.

Virion Therapeutics, LLC is a clinical-stage company developing novel T cell-based immunotherapies to cure cancer and chronic infectious diseases that utilize proprietary genetically encoded checkpoint modifiers (CPMs) to enhance and broaden CD8⁺ T cell responses to a tumor or chronic infection. Founded in early 2018 to advance technology licensed from The Wistar Institute, an international leader in biomedical research with special expertise in vaccine, cancer, and infectious disease research. Virion has a robust pipeline, including its lead VRON-0200 clinical program, and several additional programs advancing rapidly to human studies, leveraging its proprietary platform technologies. For more information, visit www.VirionTx.com.