Cancer Drugs Poised to Improve as New Developments Help Previous Therapies Target Better

FN Media Group Presents USA News Group Market Commentary

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- USA News Group – A stunning revelation came back in April, when an Oxford published study pointed to only 3% of the cancer drugs tested between 2000 and 2015 were approved to treat patients, whereas another study released this September posited the reason for this level of failure laying with scientists incorrectly targeting.

As targeting needs to improve, new solutions are being offered in combination with previous therapies to raise survivability rates and offer hope. Now aggressive research is being conducted into how to unleash the full potential of what are known as oncolytic viruses (OVs) against cancer, while applying RNA interference. Several innovative companies are working diligently on oncolytic viruses, including Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ:ONCY) (TSX:ONC), Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRNE), and AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE:AZN), while mRNA developers include Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) and BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX).

Pelareorep from Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ:ONCY) (TSX:ONC) is an OV currently being studied for combinations with some of the world's top selling anti-cancer drugs—including Keytruda ($7.2B in 2018 sales for Merck), Opdivo ($6.7B in 2018 sales for Bristol-Myers Squibb), Tecentriq ($766M in 2018 sales for Roche) and Bavencio ($75.5M in 2018 sales for Pfizer/Merck).

Already across 13 clinical studies and a broad range of cancers, up to 96% of tumor samples tested positive for replicating pelareorep virus after intravenous delivery. To date, pelareorep is the only oncolytic virus with meaningful clinical data demonstrating intravenous delivery to tumor tissue.

Pelareorep selectively infects tumor cells, leading to the creation of inflamed tumors. The body's ability to target the inflamed tumors is heightened, leading to the creation of tumor reactive T cells. In turn, pelareorep expands existing T cell clones priming the immune system for checkpoint blockade. To date, the drug has synergized with all checkpoint inhibitor combinations tested.

The OV selectively targets cancer cells, enters them, and fosters inflammation that triggers the body's natural immune system response that kills the cancer cells (and only the cancer cells). Now when combined with an approved and effective drug, what OVs bring to the table is a potentially significant rise in efficacy and survival rate.