Alliance to Commercialize Oncolytic Virus Therapies

A global agreement to develop and commercialize oncolytic virus therapies has been announced by Cell Genesys, Inc. (So. San Francisco, CA, USA) and Novartis AG (Basel, Switzerland).

Under the agreement, Cell Genesys has acquired exclusive worldwide rights to the oncolytic virus therapy products and related intellectual property of Genetic Therapy, Inc. (GTI), an affiliate of Novartis, and will receive a signature payment of US$28.5 from Novartis to be used for the further development of several oncolytic virus therapy products from both Cell Genesys and GTI for which Novartis has certain options. In exchange, Cell Genesys will issue Novartis about 5% of Cell Genesys' currently outstanding common stock.

Oncolytic virus therapies represent a potential new approach in cancer treatment, states Cell Genesys. These therapies are comprised of adenoviruses that are engineered to preferentially replicate in cancer cells and kill them. They may be several thousand times more specific for killing cancer cells than standard chemotherapy. Once the therapy is delivered to the cancer cells, the virus is believed to replicate within the cancer cell until it bursts, destroying the cell through the natural properties of the virus and spreading the newly created viruses throughout the tumor, repeating the cycle.

"We are excited about the potential for oncolytic virus therapies to benefit patients with cancer and believe that these products are an important complement to our more-advanced clinical programs for Gvax cancer vaccines,” said Stephen A. Sherwin, M.D., chairman and CEO of Cell Genesys.





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