Transgene treatment company PsiOxus Therapeutics Ltd said on Wednesday that it will evaluate the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of its tumour re-engineering platform range of tumour types with Bristol Myers Squibb's Opdivo.

Under an updated agreement, PsiOxus will evaluate the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of its tumour re-engineering platform, in combination with Bristol Myers Squibb's PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor Opdivo (nivolumab) to treat a range of tumour types in late-stage cancer patients.

Under the first stage of this collaboration, Bristol Myers Squibb's Opdivo was combined with PsiOxus' enadenotucirev in the Phase 1 SPICE study to determine the safety and tolerability of combining these two agents, and to optimise the combination intravenous dosing regimen. The revised collaboration will build upon the initial study data and will combine Opdivo with PsiOxus' NG-641.

In the Q3 2021, PsiOxus will conduct the Phase 1 study with patient recruitment.

NG-641, is a tumour re-engineering product using PsiOxus' proprietary Tumour-Specific Immuno-Gene Therapy (T-SIGn) platform based upon the enadenotucirev vector. NG-641 is a systemically administered product that encodes for the tumour selective delivery of an anti-FAP / anti-CD3 bispecific, interferon alpha, CXCL9 and CXCL10.

Opdivo is designed to harness the body's own immune system to help restore anti-tumour immune response to fight cancer, Opdivo has become an important treatment option across multiple cancers. Opdivo is a registered trademark of Bristol Myers Squibb.