Oncolytic Immunotherapy

Replimune’s oncolytic immunotherapies are designed to work by directly destroying tumors and altering the tumor microenvironment (TME), thereby releasing tumor derived antigens in an immuno-stimulatory fashion. This induces a powerful and durable systemic immune response against a patient’s own cancer.

While oncolytic immunotherapies have shown clinical activity against tumors when given as single agents, we expect these therapies to combine with and enhance the effectiveness of several different modalities and treatments — including immunotherapy, chemotherapy, small molecules and radiation — because of the synergistic immune mediated approach and well-established safety profile.

Replimune’s Oncolytic Platform

The backbone of Replimune’s powerful RPx platform is a proprietary potent HSV-1 strain selected for its ability to kill a broad panel of human cancer cell types. This backbone is modified to enhance tumor specificity and increase therapy safety, so it selectively targets cancer cells. The virus is then armed with specific genes and therapeutic transgenes to maximize anti-tumor activity and immune stimulation. These include:

  • Augment the natural ability of the virus to kill tumors in an immunogenic fashion;
  • Block feedback loops which reduce the potency of the immune response as it is generated;
  • And simultaneously provide potent co-stimulatory signals needed to maximally activate T cells;
  • Leading to the expression inflammatory cytokines further augment and shape anti-tumor response.   

Replimune has developed a robust pipeline of oncolytic immunotherapies designed to deliver transformational outcomes for patients across various cancer types.

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