Parker Institute For Cancer Immunotherapy And PsiOxus Announce Intention To Collaborate On Tumor-Specific Immuno-Gene Therapy

OXFORD, England & LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PsiOxus Therapeutics Ltd. (PsiOxus), the immuno-oncology company, and the newly launched Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a planned collaboration using the Tumor-Specific Immuno-Gene Therapy (T-SIGn) platform developed by PsiOxus.

The MoU confirms PICI and PsiOxus’s interest in working together to develop and test novel “armed” oncolytic viral constructs utilizing PsiOxus’ proprietary T-SIGn platform and manufacturing capabilities. Under the anticipated collaboration, the Parker Institute would convene key scientific and clinical thought leaders from its network to prioritize novel virus designs, including genetic payloads intended to prime or otherwise beneficially modify the tumor microenvironment for immune infiltration.

PsiOxus would then manufacture the candidate viruses and make them available for research use by Parker Institute researchers, including for Parker Institute supported clinical trials and other types of studies, as well as in combination with other clinical agents. The commercial terms of this agreement remain subject to further discussion and agreement.

Commenting on the PICI launch, Dr. Beadle, CEO of PsiOxus, said: “We are proud to be a part of this very exciting period of advancement in immunotherapy for cancer patients. It is our hope that the combination of our T-SIGn platform with the world class expertise and resources of the Parker Institute will result in fundamental steps forward in the understanding of cancer immunology as well as the development of future generations of cancer immunotherapies that will provide lasting benefits to patients for many years to come.”

Dr. Brian Champion, senior vice president of R&D for PsiOxus, will present the T-SIGn technology at the upcoming AACR meeting in New Orleans (Abstract # 4875) on 20 April 2016.

About PsiOxus Therapeutics, Ltd.

PsiOxus Therapeutics, an Oxford, UK-based development stage biotechnology company focused upon immune-oncology, has developed a patented platform for delivering tumor-targeted oncolytic immune therapeutics systemically. The Tumor-Specific Immuno-Gene (T-SIGn) therapy platform is based on the company's oncolytic virus, enadenotucirev, which has unique properties that allow it to be delivered systemically via intravenous administration and to replicate only in tumor cells. The anti-cancer capability can be further enhanced through “arming” – a process that involves the addition of new genes into the virus. The armed T-SIGn platform makes possible creation of a broad range of systemically delivered oncolytic immune therapeutics including oncolytic viruses that express one or more antibodies, cytokines, immunomodulatory proteins, or nucleotide (RNA) based payloads. The T-SIGn platform is in preclinical stage, while phase I/II clinical trials are ongoing with enadenotucirev in different tumor types and with different combinations including checkpoint inhibitors and conventional chemotherapeutics.