Boehringer adds to immuno-oncology pipeline with ViraTherapeutics acquisition

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Ingelheim, Germany) exercised an option to acquire oncolytic virus company ViraTherapeutics GmbH (Innsbruck, Austria). Boehringer gained the option under a 2016 deal to jointly develop ViraTherapeutics' oncolytic virus therapy platform and its lead candidate, VSV-GP.

ViraTherapeutics is developing a chimeric oncolytic virus that has so far been shown to be non-immunogenic, an issue that has limited use of the modality as a cancer therapeutic. VSV-GP pairs a potent oncolytic virus - vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) - with a different viral envelope that eliminated VSV's immunogenicity and toxicity (see "Oncolytic Improvements")...