Peter Carmeliet (VIB-KU Leuven) and his team have been unraveling the molecular basis of neurovascular biological processes and disorders for years, with the goal of developing new treatment methods. In collaboration with Prof. Rakesh Jain of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Harvard (Boston), the scientists showed that placental growth factor (PlGF) expression is required for the growth and spread of medulloblastoma.  

This research provided the basis for a new potential drug: TB-403, an antibody against PlGF. TB-403 inhibits the production of new blood vessels towards certain brain tumors and hereby suppresses the survival of cancer cells.  

In 2015, VIB and the Belgian biotech company Oxurion set up a joint venture to accelerate the development of TB-403 for medulloblastoma treatment: Oncurious. Oncurious is now testing the anti-PlGF therapy in patients. The favorable safety profile of the drug has already been demonstrated in clinical trials in patients with other diseases. Currently, TB-403 is being tested in a Phase I/IIa Study for relapsed medulloblastoma, with the support of the US Consortium Beat Childhood Cancer.  

In 2017, the European Commission has confirmed the orphan drug designation for this drug for medulloblastoma. In the same year, Oncurious acquired exclusive licenses to new immuno-oncology assets, based on seminal work originating from the VIB-KU Leuven labs of Massimiliano Mazzone and Gabriele Bergers, and from the VIB-VUB lab of Jo Van Ginderachter.  

The VIB Discovery Sciences team takes the lead in the pre-clinical development of Oncurious’ pipeline of cancer immunotherapies, steered by the scientific input of the VIB founding labs. The team works to identify a number of multi-specific biologics with distinct modes of action against immunomodulatory targets. These candidates are next assessed in pre-clinical tumor models, both as monotherapies and in combination with standard of care treatment.