Theriva Biologics announces dosing of first patient in Phase 1 trial of VCN-01

Theriva Biologics announced that the first patient has been dosed in the Phase 1 investigator sponsored clinical trial of VCN-01, an intravenous oncolytic adenovirus, for patients with high-grade brain tumors who are scheduled for surgical resection. "We are pleased to dose the first patient and evaluate the ability of our lead oncolytic adenovirus, VCN-01, to enter brain tumors following systemic administration," said Steven A. Shallcross, Chief Executive Officer of Theriva Biologics. "This design builds on the data that we obtained from previous trials of systemically delivered VCN-01 for treating metastatic pancreatic cancer, another difficult to treat disease. If the results show that VCN-01 gains entry to brain tumors that are otherwise only accessible through surgery, this could be transformative for patients by enabling multiple treatments with VCN-01 without the complications of brain surgery. We look forward to driving this program forward and addressing the unmet need for the thousands of patients with primary or metastatic brain tumors who could potentially benefit from this novel oncolytic therapy." Trial Design: The Phase 1, open-label, non-randomized trial is designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability and intratumoral presence of VCN-01 administered intravenously at a single dose of 1 x 1013 vp in up to 12 patients with recurrent high-grade glioma or brain metastases, prior to planned surgery. All patients will undergo surgical resection of their tumors between eight and 15 days following VCN-01 infusion, allowing for assessment of any toxicities and their resolution. More information about the trial is available here.