SillaJen, a privately held biotherapeutics company focused on the development of targeted oncolytic immunotherapy products for cancer, has completed the acquisition of San Francisco-based Jennerex. Privately held Jennerex is a clinical-stage, biotherapeutics company developing best-in-class targeted oncolytic immunotherapies.

SillaJen will continue the development of late-stage product Pexa-Vec (JX-594), as well as products from both companies' pipelines. Jennerex now is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SillaJen.

David Kirn, founder of Jennerex and chairman of the SillaJen board of directors, said, "SillaJen's acquisition of its long-standing R&D partner positions it as the world leader in oncolytic immunotherapy. Positive Pexa-Vec clinical data have recently been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Nature and Nature Medicine. The potential of this emerging multi-mechanistic therapeutic class also has been validated by the demonstration of a survival benefit in front-line advanced cancer patients with both Pexavec and Amgen's T-Vec in randomized phase II and III trials, respectively. We look forward to working with our global partners to bring Pexa-Vec into a phase III pivotal trial for front-line treatment of patients with advanced liver cancer. Pexa-Vec also has demonstrated objective and durable tumor responses in other common cancer types, and these will be the focus of upcoming clinical trials. These trials will study Pexa-Vec as both a single agent and in combination with checkpoint inhibitor therapies."