Are­navirus­es. They’re small, they’re packed with tiny stolen ri­bo­somes that re­sem­ble grains of sand, they’re re­spon­si­ble for 300,000 to 500,000 hu­man in­fec­tions in West Africa each year, and, if a new Ger­man biotech has their way, they are go­ing to one day treat tu­mors.

Aba­los Ther­a­peu­tics launched to­day with $12 mil­lion in fund­ing to de­vel­op are­navirus­es it hopes can be used in im­munother­a­py for can­cer. The fund­ing was co-led by Boehringer In­gel­heim Ven­ture Fund (BIVF) and Gru­en­der­fonds Ruhr, with par­tic­i­pa­tion from NRW.BANK and High-Tech Gru­en­der­fonds (HT­GF).

CEO Mar­cus Kost­ka

Aba­los Ther­a­peu­tics CSO Jörg Vollmer told End­points News the plat­form stood out for its nim­ble­ness com­pared to oth­er on­colyt­ic virus ap­proach­es.

“We use the nat­ur­al adap­tion pos­si­bil­i­ty and prop­er­ties of the virus adapt­ed to the tu­mor cell,” Vollmer said. “So we are not re­strict­ed, re­al­ly.”

Aba­los is en­ter­ing an in­creas­ing­ly crowd­ed field of small biotechs and phar­ma gi­ants try­ing to lever­age virus­es and the body’s nat­ur­al de­fense sys­tem against them to treat can­cer. Over the last 3 years, As­traZeneca, Mer­ck, Boehringer In­gel­heim, Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb and J&J have inked deals of var­i­ous sizes with on­colyt­ic virus biotechs, with J&J putting up the largest fig­ure at $1.04 bil­lion.

Where­as im­munother­a­pies such as CAR-T re-en­gi­neer im­mune cells to see and tar­get tu­mors, like out­fit­ting a fight­er jet with in­frared or a sub with radar, on­colyt­ic virus­es work by light­ing up the tu­mor cells tar­gets. A virus that is de­signed to prop­a­gate pri­mar­i­ly through can­cer cells is in­ject­ed in­to a pa­tient. The body then car­ries out its nat­ur­al im­mune re­sponse to the virus, which hap­pens to be in can­cer cells.

Un­like oth­er on­colyt­ic virus­es — such as the her­pes-virus-based T-Vec from Am­gen, the first such ther­a­py ap­proved in the US — are­navirus­es don’t them­selves kill cells. Like in the Junin and Las­sa in­fec­tions that are­navirus­es can cause in hu­mans, the dam­age comes from the body’s im­mune re­sponse. In a po­ten­tial im­munother­a­py, that re­sponse would be di­rect­ed to can­cer cells.

Kost­ka told End­points News their plat­form was not anti­gen-spe­cif­ic and thus could be used to tar­get a wide range of can­cers.

Like much of vi­rother­a­py re­search, their work is pre­clin­i­cal. They said they are aim­ing for an IND in three years.

One of Europe’s most high-profile biopharma investors is getting $540 million to invest in new crossover deals for late-stage companies.

The Paris-based VC says the fresh Sofinnova Crossover Fund raise positions them as the “largest crossover investor in Europe dedicated to late-stage biopharma and medtech investments.”

They got a leg up in France after winning a special “Tibi” designation from the French government, giving them access to a pool of €6 billion that helped them gain an edge with institutional investors. Since they were founded close to 50 years ago, the venture group has backed more than 500 companies and currently has more than €2 billion under management.

CRLs. 483s. CBER, CDER and RWE. For biopharma professionals, these acronyms command attention because of the fundamental role FDA plays in drug development. Now Endpoints is doubling down on regulatory coverage, and launching a weekly report focusing on developments out of White Oak, with analysis and insight into what it all means.

Coverage will be led by our new senior editor, Zachary Brennan. He joins Endpoints from POLITICO, where he covered pharma. Prior to that he was the managing editor for Regulatory Focus, a news publication from the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society.

Janux Therapeutics had kept a relatively low profile since being founded back in 2017 but burst onto the scene late last year when Merck plunked down more than $1 billion in promised milestones for its T cell engagers. Now, less than three months later, the small biotech has clinched its first round of private funding led by some prominent backers.

As it prepares its first programs for INDs, Janux completed a $56 million Series A on Wednesday morning, with Jay Lichter’s Avalon Ventures joining forces with new investors OrbiMed and RA Capital Management to fund the company. Janux will use the cash to primarily advance its T cell engagers targeting PSMA and TROP2, which are expected to hit the clinic in the first and second quarters of 2022, respectively.