Recipharm and CanVirex have begun a manufacturing-development collaboration to scale production of CanVirex’s oncolytic measles virus platform for potential clinical studies in advanced solid tumors.
The project centers on CanVirex’s lead candidate, an oncolytic measles virus engineered to express interleukin-12, or IL-12. The company is developing the program for difficult-to-treat solid tumors, including cancers it says remain poorly served by current immunotherapy approaches.
Oncolytic viruses are designed to infect and destroy tumor cells and can also stimulate immune activity within tumors. CanVirex’s platform uses a measles-virus approach that combines direct tumor cell destruction with local immune activation.
The companies have started transferring CanVirex’s Vero cell and measles-virus manufacturing process to Recipharm. Initial feasibility work supported cell and virus banking in static culture systems, the establishment of development cell and virus banks, and an assessment of the platform’s suitability for additional process development.
The program is now advancing to process-development runs intended to optimize a scalable bioreactor process using microcarrier culture. The companies said the work is designed to establish a manufacturing process for future clinical supply and longer-term commercial scale-up.
Recipharm will perform the project at its Cuxhaven, Germany, facility. The site provides development, manufacturing, sterile fill-finish and analytical services for viral vectors, oncolytic viruses and sterile microbial products.
Recipharm was selected for its experience with viral therapeutics requiring aseptic processing, including large viruses that cannot be sterilized through filtration. The company said it will support the program from process development through potential good manufacturing practice production.
CanVirex said establishing a scalable process is a necessary step before clinical development. The companies did not disclose financial terms of the collaboration or a timeline for beginning clinical trials.