Immunomodulation and sustained treatment of CD95L stratified tumours by precision targeting

Cancer is the second leading cause of global mortality with over 8,000,000 deaths worldwide (WHO, 2015) and 163,444 in the UK (CRUK, 2014). Interventions that leverage the immune system, including antibodies and cell-based therapies, promise to revolutionise cancer treatment with cures seen in previously untreatable patients. However, many obstacles remain such as difficulties penetrating solid tumours, depleted immunity, serious side effects, logistics and high costs. Consequently, there is large unmet clinical need for patients with certain cancers, especially ovarian and pancreatic, where improvement in 5-year survival rates has been very limited. BioMoti, in a new alliance with Pharmidex, is developing the Oncojan™ platform to overcome current limitations. Oncojans™ are a new class of precision sustained therapeutics that target CD95L on tumours. CD95L is overexpressed on cells of the tumour bulk and vasculature (but not on healthy tissue) where it promotes proliferation, metastasis and immune evasion. This proposal aims to build on exciting pilot data showing that Oncojan™ formulation results in remarkable preclinical activity; 65-fold reduction in tumour burden, doubling of median survival and loss of toxicity compared to the Taxol® standard-of-care in ovarian cancer. Our main focus will be on the seriously unmet medical need in ovarian cancer with complimentary studies in the deadly triple negative breast and pancreatic cancer indications. This will enable commercial investment to support formal development.