AbbVie and Turnstone Biologics have entered a research, option and license agreement under which AbbVie obtained an exclusive option to license as many as three of Turnstone’s next-generation oncolytic viral immunotherapies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
 
Oncolytic viruses take advantage of defective pathways in tumors to selectively replicate in and destroy cancer cells, while cancer vaccines create killer (CD8+) T cell immune responses against tumor antigens.  
 
Turnstone engineered its Maraba oncolytic viral immunotherapy to function as both a selective tumor-destroying oncolytic virus and an immune-stimulating T cell vaccine. The Maraba platform directly attacks cancer cells and changes the tumor microenvironment to make the cancer susceptible to the targeted vaccine-induced immune response, leaving healthy cells unaffected. The resulting therapy harnesses the individual’s own immune system to attack and kill tumors locally and at metastatic sites throughout the body, generating durable memory and preventing recurrence.
 
“Turnstone Biologics is the first company to clinically develop a combined oncolytic virus and cancer vaccine, and we are very impressed by their work to-date. This unique approach to cancer treatment complements our expanding portfolio of novel therapies in development,” said Tom Hudson, M.D., vice president, oncology discovery and early development, AbbVie. “The combination of our world-class expertise in oncology drug development partnered with Turnstone’s innovative therapeutic platform has the potential to generate first-in-class immunotherapies that can attack tumors directly and improve patients’ response to treatment.”
 
AbbVie has an option to obtain all global development and commercialization rights to Turnstone’s Ad-MG1-MAGEA3 therapy, in two Phase 1/2 trials for multiple solid tumor indications. Each of the three therapies leverages Turnstone’s platform based on an engineered Maraba virus. In the event AbbVie exercises one or more of its options, AbbVie expects to pursue this immunotherapeutic technology across several types of solid tumors.