Maryland cancer vaccine upstart BeneVir is taking a two-pronged approach to immuno-oncology – it’s developing viruses that can rid the body of tumor cells that cause cancer and cause it to recur.
It just brought in $3 million of a proposed $12 million round, according to a regulatory filing. This looks to be the second tranche of a Series A announced in November 2014.
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The company, launched in 2011, gets its core technology from New York University. BeneVir claims its platform, called T-Stealth, “overcomes a major barrier to the clinical success of oncolytic viruses” It’s referring to the immune system, which is indiscriminate in killing harmful viruses – like influenza – and good viruses, like the ones sent in the body to kill cancer.
BeneVir’s viruses can hide in the body away from the immune system, much like herpes or HIV, so that it can continually attack cancer cells. The idea is that T-Stealth oncolytic viruses can only replicate in cancer cells. Once they overtake a cancer cell, they reproduce and rupture it – so the viruses spread further to more cancer cells. Healthy cells remain unharmed, BeneVir says.
This approach also manages to stimulate the immune system to attack cancer cells throughout the body, BeneVir says. That’s because these oncolytic viruses are identified as foreign and dangerous by the body’s own T-cells.
Notably, Amgen had its own oncolytic virus approved just last year, under the brand name Imlygic. It’s indicated for patients with melanoma that have inoperable tumors, engineered from a herpes simplex virus. It’s priced at around $65,000 for a course of treatment.