Oncorus Announces Exclusive Licensing Agreement With Gaeta Therapeutics for Use of Locally Delivered Interleukin-12 Via Oncolytic Viral Expression in Combination With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Oncorus, Inc. recently announced it has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Gaeta Therapeutics Ltd., related to the use of locally delivered Interleukin-12 (IL-12) via oncolytic viral expression in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors, including CTLA-4, PD-1 or PD-L1 checkpoint blockade. Gaeta Therapeutics was founded by the University of Zurich in 2017 as a vehicle for the commercialization of its immune-oncology patent estate relating to the use of IL-12 in combination with checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of cancer.

“Known to activate and expand CD8, CD4 T_H1 and natural killer cells, IL-12 is a transgene of notable interest in the immune-oncology space. IL-12 in combination with immune checkpoint blockade has demonstrated the ability to augment treatment response in certain patients versus immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment alone,” said Theodore (Ted) Ashburn, MD, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer at Oncorus. “IL-12 is one of five immunomodulatory payloads in our lead viral immunotherapy product candidate, ONCR-177. This agreement with Gaeta is a strategic addition to our IP portfolio as we continue to advance ONCR-177 as a potential new therapeutic option for cancer patients, including in combination with pembrolizumab and other immunotherapies.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Gaeta will receive an upfront payment of $0.2 million and is eligible to receive up to $7.5 million in potential clinical and regulatory milestone payments on a product-by-product and indication-by-indication basis.

“We’re pleased to enter into this agreement with Gaeta, as it enhances our clinical development efforts for ONCR-177 and bolsters our future commercialization strategy and opportunities for this product candidate,” said Stephanie Duncanson, PhD, Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Business Development. “We’ll continue to seek additional strategic opportunities to differentiate our pipeline programs as we work to drive innovation and advance our mission to realize the full promise of viral immunotherapy for cancer patients.”

Being developed for multiple solid tumor indications, ONCR-177 is an intratumorally administered oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV)-based viral immunotherapy engineered to induce immunogenic cancer cell death and ignite innate and adaptive immunity to drive a lasting and systemic anti-tumor response. In addition to IL1-12, ONCR-177’s complementary transgene payload also includes FLT3LG, CCL4, anti-PD-1 and anti-CLTA-4. Oncorus is currently enrolling patients in a Phase 1 open-label, dose escalation and expansion clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of ONCR-177 alone and in combination with Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), in patients with advanced and/or refractory cutaneous, subcutaneous or metastatic nodal solid tumors or with liver metastases of solid tumors.

At Oncorus, we are focused on driving innovation to deliver next-generation viral immunotherapies to transform outcomes for cancer patients. We are advancing a portfolio of intratumorally (iTu) and intravenously (IV) administered viral immunotherapies for multiple indications with significant unmet need based on our oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Platform and Synthetic viral RNA (vRNA) Immunotherapy Platform.

Designed to deliver next-generation viral immunotherapy impact, our HSV Platform improves upon key characteristics of this therapeutic class to enhance systemic activity. Our lead HSV program, ONCR-177, is designed to be directly administered into a tumor, resulting in high local concentrations of the therapeutic agent and its five encoded transgenes, as well as low systemic exposure to the therapy, which could limit systemic toxicities. Our pioneering Synthetic vRNA Immunotherapy Platform involves a highly innovative, novel combination of RNA- and oncolytic virus-based modalities designed to realize the potential of RNA medicines for cancer. Our lead IV-administered Synthetic vRNA Immunotherapy clinical candidates, ONCR-021 and ONCR-788, are both currently in IND-enabling studies. For more information, visit www.oncorus.com.