April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s biotherapeutics company SillaJen said that the first patient has been enrolled in its early stage study on a two drug cocktail of its first engineered oncolytic virus Pexa-Vec with cancer medication Yervoy.

The open-label trial, initiated by SillaJen’s European partner Transgene, will recruit up to 60 patients with advanced solid tumors in several clinical centers in France.

SillaJen CEO Moon Eun-sang

The trial will evaluate the safety and efficacy of the drug combination of SillaJen’s Pexa-Vec, an oncolytic immunotherapy designed selectively target and destroy cancer cells along with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Yervoy.

According to the two companies, first readouts could be expected towards the end of 2017.

“We believe in the synergistic potential of the combination between oncolytic viruses and immune checkpoint-targeted antibodies,” said Aurelien Marabelle from Gustave Roussy, a world expert in immunotherapy clinical research and coordinating investigator of the study.

The combination of Pexa-Vec and Yervoy aims at targeting two distinct steps in the immune response against cancer cells and is expected to be significantly more effective than either product alone, according to the company.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)