Nventa Biopharmaceuticals Corporation has signed a supply agreement with Oncovir, Inc (Oncovir) for a proprietary Oncovir compound known as Hiltonol or Poly-ICLC, an adjuvant that activates innate immunity and targets the Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR-3) pathway.

Nventa intends to combine Hiltonol with its lead product candidate, HspE7, an investigational therapeutic vaccine for the treatment of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related diseases.

"Hiltonol is a highly effective adjuvant compound among several that we have tested and, when combined at low doses with our new formulation of HspE7 in preclinical studies, it provides significantly increased potency," said Peter Emtage, Ph.D., vice president of Research and Development at Nventa. "The safety and efficacy data generated by Oncovir to date around Hiltonol, as well as the current supply of material, should allow us to move HspE7 into clinical development as rapidly as possible. In addition, we have filed and expect to continue to file patent applications around the use of HspE7 plus adjuvant intended to lengthen the intellectual property protection around our compound."

Andres M Salazar, M.D., chief executive officer of Oncovir, commented on the agreement: "Hiltonol has already been shown to be a safe and potent adjuvant in combination with multiple prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines. We are thus confident that Nventa's HspE7 will continue to show enhanced activity in combination with Hiltonol, and we look forward to a very productive collaboration with Nventa."

Nventa is developing innovative therapeutics for the treatment of viral infections and cancer, with a focus on diseases caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).