China Approves World’s First Oncolytic Virus Therapy For Cancer Treatment

Oncolytic virus research got a welcome boost last November when Chinese regulators approved the world’s first oncolytic viral therapy for cancer, Shanghai Sunway Biotech’s genetically modified adenovirus H101. “It’s fantastic for the field,” said John Bell , Ph.D., of the Ottawa Health Research Institute in Canada. “We needed to have something that was a success, and so I think this is a good first start.” Oncolytic viruses are live viruses that selectively kill cancer cells. Shanghai Sunway Biotech expects to begin marketing H101 in July for treating head and neck cancer. The company is also testing the virus in lung cancer and has bought the rights to Onyx-15, an almost identical virus that Onyx Pharmaceuticals took into phase III trials in 2000 but later dropped after its marketing partner bailed out. Now the Chinese effort has breathed new life into the Onyx virus. Sunway’s next step, says company president Hu Fang, M.D., is to compare it with H101 in a Chinese trial. The company will then apply to test one of the viruses in Europe and the United States. “The first choice is Onyx-15, but we can’t exclude the H101,” Hu said.