Orca licenses oncolytic adenovirus technology from VCN Biosciences

Licensing deal

Orca Therapeutics BV, a specialist in virotherapy spun out from the VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, has obtained an exclusive licence from VCN Biosciences SL of Barcelona, Spain, for VCN’s T1 oncolytic adenovirus technology for the treatment of cancer.

This license allows Orca to develop and commercialise next generation oncolytic adenoviruses with increased potency.

Securing this intellectual property will enhance our competitive position in virotherapy,” said Janneke Meulenberg, CEO of ORCA Therapeutics. “We now have the unique opportunity to combine our oncolytic adenovirus technology and know-how with VCN Biosciences’ state of the art T1 technology to develop more effective oncolytic adenoviruses for the treatment of cancer.”

Manel Cascallo, CEO of VCN, said, “We have been looking for a company whose intellectual property could be combined with our T1 technology to accelerate its clinical application. The partnership with Orca has grown out of a fruitful scientific collaboration between [the two companies] leading to the present agreement that prioritises clinical translation and gives both partners a good opportunity to grow.”

VCN’s T1 technology generates oncolytic adenoviruses that are engineered to replicate selectively in cancer cells. They kill these cells by their inherent capacity to lyse their host cell. Upon destroying infected cancer cells, progeny viruses are released that in turn will infect and kill adjacent cancer cells.

The T1 technology includes a novel mechanism that increases the release of adenovirus from infected tumour cells. A team led by Ramon Alemany and Manel Cascallo from the Catalan Institute of Oncology identified a unique mutation in the endoplasmic reticulum retention domain of the adenovirus E3/19K protein (445A mutation). This causes enhanced oncolytic potency in human tumors and cancer-associated fibroblasts in vitro and enhanced antitumor activity when injected intra-tumorally or systemically in different cancer models in vivo.

Orca Therapeutics’ platform technology Oncolytic Replication Competent Agents originates from the research performed at the Department of Medical Oncology at the VU University Medical Center (VUmc) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

VCN, a spin-off of the Catalan Institute of Oncology and the Biomedical Research Institute of Bellvitge, focuses on the development of oncolytic adenoviruses for cancer treatment. The company was formed in May 2009.