SalvaRx subsidiary part of grant-receiving cancer drug consortium

The AIM-traded company said iOx will benefit directly from the grant as one of the candidates being developed is a new combination product based on one of its compounds.

iOx will also be able to reclaim €150,000 of its developments costs associated with the new product.

SalvaRx’s board said the consortium consists of academic experts in cancer immunotherapy and tumour immunology from five leading academic institutions, including the University of Oxford, and biotechnology companies or service providers with significant track records in preclinical drug development and clinical trials.

It will develop a new product, combining iOx’s iNKT agonist with an NY-ESO-1 tumour vaccine developed by the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, co-formulating the products into a nanoparticle called IMM65.

The grant will fund the manufacture of IMM65 and its testing in bladder, ovarian, lung and other solid tumour patients.

"We are extremely pleased to have been awarded a grant from Horizon 2020. Academic and private collaborations like this are critical for propelling scientific discovery and development forward and helping patients access potentially life-saving innovations more quickly,” said SalvaRx CEO Ian Walters.

“iOx's participation in this consortium gives iOx an additional product that is fully funded through multiple Phase 2 trials and a new platform for creating combination immunotherapy products to address different solid tumours."