The Power of Partnership: Transforming Cancer Therapy through Century-old Theory
“It’s not about large company vs. small company. It’s about knowledge plus knowledge. That’s the secret to a successful partnership – a real marriage of complementary skills.” So says Patrik Erlmann, Ph.D., Head of Research at ViraTherapeutics. And he should know. What began in 2013 as a small spin-out from the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, is now a fully integrated, but distinct unit of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Discovery Research organization.
With a focus on oncolytic viruses, ViraTherapeutics was founded by Prof. Dorothee von Laer, M.D., Head of the Virology Institute at the Medical University of Innsbruck and the inventor of the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Glycoprotein (VSV-GP) technology that is ViraTherapeutics’ principle focus. While the potential of viruses to treat cancer first emerged more than a hundred years ago, only one therapeutic virus has been widely approved so far.
A Core Pillar of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Cancer Immunology Strategy
The team at Boehringer Ingelheim had always been interested in oncolytic viruses as it supports the company’s cancer immunology strategy to turn cold tumors hot. Eric Borges, Ph.D., Vice President, Cancer Immunology and Immune Modulation explains: “We were looking for approaches to heat up the tumor; viruses can do this naturally because they are very immunogenic and induce inflammation. At the time, oncolytic virus approaches were focused on direct injections into the tumor but we were interested in something that could be given systemically, which not only affects the primary tumor, but also metastases.”
Timing is everything. And in 2015, when Boehringer Ingelheim’s Venture Fund was scouting for investment opportunities with the potential to support the Company’s emerging Cancer Immunology efforts, ViraTherapeutics was looking for investment to advance the technology they had been working on into clinical development.
From Venture Investment to Acquisition
Chief Operating Officer, ViraTherapeutics
Early results began to emerge which further increased Boehringer Ingelheim’s initial confidence in the technology. A research collaboration was initiated in 2016 with the aim of jointly developing this novel oncolytic virus technology. Lisa Egerer, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer, ViraTherapeutics, explains how the relationship with the Venture Fund paved the way for the scientific collaboration: “The Venture Fund was a real ‘door-opener’ for us. For a small biotech with just a few people, it’s not easy to access big pharma and get to know the right people who are interested in the science for a collaboration. For both sides, it’s an advantage to have some knowledge of the people already and that’s where we had a good start through our relationship with the Venture Fund.”
Vice President, Cancer Immunology & Immune Modulation, Boehringer Ingelheim
As the partnership developed it became clear that this was a marriage founded in technology, biology and drug development know-how. “It was immediately a very scientific, curiosity-driven collaboration,” explains Eric Borges. “ViraTherapeutics was very good on the technology. They know how to manipulate the virus, how to change it, how to test it, how to produce it. And we know what it takes to develop a drug.” Patrik Erlmann agrees: “For us it was a win-win situation, because it helped our product and it helped us. From the beginning we were working with people who were really interested in the science and who knew how to translate that into the clinic.” In 2018, as the project was about to advance into phase 1 development, the ‘marriage certificate’ was signed and ViraTherapeutics became part of the Boehringer Ingelheim group of companies.
Working Together to Solve Scientific Challenges
But while opposites attract, the discovery path can be strewn with obstacles to overcome and partners can have different approaches. Biotech companies are typically very agile with a small number of projects and a desire to advance these into clinical development as quickly as possible. Large pharmaceutical companies have a more extensive portfolio where priorities need to be balanced and there are predefined processes and multiple levels of decision-making. So how did the companies navigate scientific challenges together? Lisa Egerer describes this as “two worlds colliding! But with unique expertise on both sides, we could come together to find a solution and drive things forward.” For Eric Borges, the diversity of culture and thoughts led to important rewards. “It’s amazing. We look at the technology from completely different perspectives. But if you work together to overcome the hurdles you generate this winning spirit to get the best of both worlds to create real value for patients.”
Head of Research, ViraTherapeutics
Patients First
This patient centricity is fundamental to all research at Boehringer Ingelheim, as is a sense of urgency to accelerate new science as quickly as possible. Patrik Erlmann believes that this has been achieved. “This was a real joint effort. We worked together to create development candidates and saw progress much faster than we would have done without the collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim.”
Now the companies are looking forward to VSV-GP being tested in patients for the first time and are also exploring opportunities for combination therapy with checkpoint inhibitors and AMAL Therapeutics’* KISIMA® cancer vaccine.
“This is why the acquisition of ViraTherapeutics was so valuable,” says Eric Borges. “Sometimes, a company can acquire an asset and advance into the clinic without the partner. However, in this case we had the opportunity to share our ideas with the experts from ViraTherapeutics to jointly maximize the potential of this technology and form a portfolio. The innovation power you create, because so many different minds have found a way to work together, is tremendous. And we believe that this will provide a real benefit for patients in the long-term.”
Footnotes
*AMAL Therapeutics became part of the Boehringer Ingelheim group of companies in 2019.