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VIRTTU

An active oncolytic immunotherapy platform technology (SEPREHVEC)

Virttu Biologics Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TNK Therapeutics, Inc. and part of the group of companies owned by Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. (www.sorrentotherapeutics.com).

Virttu has pioneered the development of oncolytic viruses for treating cancer. Although viruses naturally kill the cells they infect, weakened viruses have been used in medicine for centuries as vaccinations against the infectious diseases they cause. Scientists at Virttu have reprogrammed this ability in a common human virus so that it targets and kills only cancer cells (oncolysis), leaving normal cells unharmed. Additionally, the presence of the tumour-specific viral infection works as a vaccination triggering the patient’s own immune system to mount an anti-cancer response – a treatment known as oncolytic immunotherapy.

Virttu’s lead oncolytic product SEPREHVIR® has been administered to 102 patients (as at 1st March 2017) with ages ranging from 8 to 84 years and with many different types of cancer including brain, melanoma, head and neck cancer, sarcomas, neuroblastoma and mesothelioma.  In these patients, SEPREHVIR can be administered by the route most suitable for their disease which includes systemic administration by intravenous infusion, direct intratumoural injection, and loco-regional infusion. SEPREHVIR, which the company is interested in partnering for further development, is the first product from an active oncolytic immunotherapy platform technology (SEPREHVEC). VIRTTU’s in-house expertise has led to the development of techniques to rapidly engineer further therapeutic modalities into the SEPREHVIR backbone and VIRTTU now has a promising pipeline of next-generation clinical candidates. Virttu’s scientific and technical expertise in oncolytic virotherapy has been established over 15 years of research and development activity carried out both in-house and with leading researchers in oncolytic immunotherapy, resulting in many firsts in the field and 68 publications in peer- reviewed journals.