GMO cancer treatment gets EPA go-ahead

Monday 19 February 2018

GMO cancer treatment gets EPA go-ahead

The Environmental Protection Authority has approved a potentially life-saving treatment for melanoma.

“Telomelysin, a genetically modified virus, will be used as part of a clinical trial of patients with advanced and inoperable melanoma,” says Dr Fiona Thomson-Carter, EPA’s General Manager of Hazardous Substances and New Organisms.

“It is derived from a common human virus, that nearly all people are immune to from around the age of two.

“Once directly injected into the tumour, it replicates in cancer cells, targeting them for destruction,” says Dr Thomson-Carter.

The approval, under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act, has been granted to applicant Oncolys BioPharma Incorporated, which will use the virus in clinical trials to explore its effectiveness and any side-effects.

“In granting the approval, the EPA has set strict controls that will protect people and the environment to enable the clinical trial to go ahead,” says Dr Thomson-Carter.

Oncolys BioPharma Inc has a five-year timeframe in which to begin the trial.

You can read more about the decision on the EPA website.

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