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news.MedImmune, AstraZeneca's global biologics research and development arm, has entered into a licensing agreement with Omnis Pharmaceuticals (Omnis), a US-based biotechnology firm focused on the development of oncolytic viruses, which are designed to target tumor cells with the killing potency of viruses.
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The deal will see development of new treatments using Omnis’ cancer-killing virus technology and later sell them if they seem to be successful.
In the project, key agents from MedImmune’s investigational immunotherapy portfolio will be combined with Omnis’ lead investigational oncolytic virus program, a genetically engineered strain of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV).
Currently, the program is being studied in a Phase I clinical trial as a monotherapy to treat hepatocellular carcinoma and other cancers that have metastasized to the liver.
MedImmune senior vice president R&D and head of Oncology Innovative Medicines Unit Dr Edward Bradley said: "Oncolytic viruses combine potent tumour cell killing with increasing the visibility of the tumour cell to the immune system.
"Our immunotherapy molecules offer the prospect of boosting the cancer-killing abilities of these viruses by enhancing the anti-cancer effect."
As part of the deal, clinical development of the virus will be accelerated with an aim of rapidly progressing to combination studies with MedImmune’s immunotherapy molecules.
Omnis Pharmaceuticals chief executive officer Stephen Russell said: "We believe that MedImmune’s portfolio of immunotherapeutic agents, which harness the ability of the immune system to attack cancer cells, will produce beneficial synergies with our VSV programme."