Virax to buy Pathway Oncology

Virax Holdings (ASX:VHL) has entered a deal to acquire Pathway Oncology and the company’s cancer drug candidate GGTI-2418.

Pathway Oncology has the exclusive worldwide licence to the cancer drug and associated IP. Virax will pay 60 million shares up front for the acquisition and up to a further 180 million shares contingent on the meeting of major milestones.

GGTI-2418 was developed at Yale University and the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida. It is a synthetic peptidomimetic inhibitor of cancer growth enzyme geranyl-geranyl transferase I (GGTase I), and also blocks the Ral & Rho circuits in cancer cells.

The drug candidate has been through animal studies - where it was able to cause a significant breast tumour regression in transgenic mice models  - and a phase I safety trial.

Moffitt Cancer Center is preparing to conduct a phase Ib/II trial of GGTI-2418 in multiple myeloma, as well as a phase II study of the drug in combination with paclitaxel in breast cancer patients. The latter trial will also be conducted at the Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care in New York.

Virax executive chairman Dr Wayne Millen said the pending acquisition “represents a major corporate achievement for Virax: few ASX-listed biotech companies can claim two advanced clinical programs to be conducted under a US IND at two major US cancer institutions.”

Virax has also licensed its Co-X-Gene immunotherapy platform technology to French biotech Transgene for two immunotherapeutic products, including TG4010 - a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. The second is TG4001, a drug candidate for pathologies related to HPV infection.