Q&A: Can oncolytic viruses make a comeback? Experts dissect clinical failures and outline path forward

In the eight years since the FDA first ap­proved an on­colyt­ic virus as a can­cer ther­a­py, de­vel­op­ers have been striv­ing — and large­ly fail­ing — to bring next-gen treat­ments to the mar­ket. But a new wave could be up­on us.

Can on­colyt­ic virus­es make a come­back? That was a top­ic of a re­cent pan­el host­ed by End­points News. Our guests were Paul Pe­ter Tak, a for­mer GSK ex­ec who’s now CEO of vi­ral im­munother­a­py de­vel­op­er Can­del Ther­a­peu­tics; Howard Kauf­man, the pres­i­dent and CEO of Ankyra Ther­a­peu­tics and a long­time re­searcher of on­colyt­ic virus­es; and Ad­i­na Pelu­sio, the se­nior vice pres­i­dent of clin­i­cal op­er­a­tions at KaliVir Im­munother­a­peu­tics, who has more than 20 years of ex­pe­ri­ence lead­ing clin­i­cal tri­als for these ther­a­pies.

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