IP covers systemic cell delivery of myxoma virus and use of mxyoma virus for oncology and hematology treatments, including multiple myeloma and graft versus host disease (GVHD)
PHOENIX, June 15, 2021 – OncoMyx Therapeutics, a privately-held oncolytic immunotherapy company, has extended its intellectual property (IP) portfolio to include an exclusive option to license IP rights for the use and delivery of myxoma virus to treat certain cancers from the University of Florida Research Foundation (UFRF). This IP was developed by OncoMyx cofounder Grant McFadden, Ph.D. and his collaborators, when he was a Professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine.
“We are pleased to enter this licensing agreement with OncoMyx, the leading company for multi-armed systemic delivery in oncology and hematology,” said Christopher Cogle, Professor of Medicine at the University of Florida and a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Clinical Research Scholar. “As practicing oncologists in blood cancer clinics, we struggle to find effective treatments for our patients. The myxoma virus technology has tremendous potential to help our patients suffering from multiple myeloma, AML, myelofibrosis, lymphomas, and other blood conditions such as graft versus host disease. Rather than using single mechanism agents, myxoma therapy combines multiple arming strategies delivered concurrently to ignite the immune system – establishing a new treatment paradigm in blood cancers.”
“We have been working in collaboration with OncoMyx and Professor McFadden on multiple myeloma for a number of years, and an important part of this technology will be to partner with leaders in myeloma centers,” said Rafael Fonseca, M.D., interim director of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and a longstanding clinical collaborator of Dr. McFadden in myeloma. “Rather than single agent approaches, there is an unmet need to simultaneously target multiple mechanisms in one delivery system to improve the treatment of multiple myeloma.”
“As we develop our plans for solid tumor intravenous programs with our multi-armed myxoma platform, the unmet need in hematological malignancies is striking,” said Steve Potts, Ph.D., MBA, Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of OncoMyx. “There is no other viral approach that currently offers true multi-arming combined with systemic delivery against hematologic cancers. There have been more than a dozen peer-reviewed preclinical publications at multiple institutions demonstrating the ability of the myxoma virus to have curative potential against multiple myeloma when delivered systemically. In other hematologic malignancies like AML, the virus has also been shown in peer-reviewed studies to systemically infect and kill tumor cells, while additionally dampening the graft-versus host disease response after allogeneic transplants. With the exclusive option to license these IP rights, we further strengthen our IP portfolio protecting our use of myxoma virus and our pipeline of myxoma virotherapies for the systemically delivered treatment of cancer.”
“In modern multi-arming approaches in oncolytic viral therapy, the myxoma virus is the only platform that can be both multi-armed and systemically delivered in hematologic cancers,” said Dr. McFadden. “OncoMyx has built a leading technology platform generating multi-armed myxoma virotherapies with demonstrated ability to modulate anti-tumor immunity and be systemically delivered for broad cancer killing potential. I am pleased to see OncoMyx continue to add to their IP portfolio as the company builds a pipeline of oncolytic immunotherapies that has the potential to be a new pillar in cancer care.”
About Myxoma Virotherapy for the Treatment of Cancer
Myxoma is a highly immuno-stimulatory, oncolytic virus with unique qualities that make it idea for ideal for developing multi-armed, targeted, systemic virotherapies. Because myxoma virus is not pathogenic to humans, myxoma virotherapy does not have to overcome pre-existing immunity and is highly amenable to IV delivered multi-dosing. As a large dsDNA poxvirus, myxoma is engineerable to express multiple transgenic payloads, such as immunomodulatory proteins, to target multiple points in the cancer immunity cycle. OncoMyx’s preclinical data demonstrates efficacy of multi-armed myxoma virotherapies via intravenous (IV) and intratumoral (IT) delivery in a number of tumor models across multiple cancer indications and supports a pan-tumor approach to expand the therapeutic effectiveness of immunotherapies.
About OncoMyx Therapeutics
OncoMyx Therapeutics develops oncolytic immunotherapies based on the myxoma virus (MYXV) platform to orchestrate an immune response to better treat cancer. Successful immuno-oncology (IO) cancer treatment generally requires combination therapy, and oncolytic viruses (OVs) have the potential to be a safe and effective complement to immunotherapies. The company’s MYXV platform, exclusively licensed from Arizona State University, Western Ontario, and now University of Florida, is poised to be a best-in-class OV approach, and the top immune-oncology team has assembled around MYXV to create important new therapeutic options for cancer patients. For more information, please visit www.oncomyx.com and connect with the company on LinkedIn and Twitter.
