The IO from the title stands for immune-oncology. This term, IO, refers to therapies that mobilize the immune system to recognize and eradicate tumor cells.
Instead of 7 dwarfs, EpicentRx features 2 therapies: RRx-001 (nibrozetone), a small molecule, with a molecular weight of 268.02 Daltons, and AdAPT-001, an even smaller biologic, which is around 90 nanometers (nm) in diameter.
The names of the 7 Dwarfs in the original classic, Snow White, are Happy, Doc, Grumpy, Dopey, Bashful, Sleepy, and Sneezy.
These names apply to how tumors make immune cells behave. This behavior ranges from sleepy/inactive, dopey/confused, bashful/non-aggressive, happy/bewitched, grumpy/temperamental, sneezy/fitful, and doc/doctored or manipulated.
The promise of both RRx-001 (nibrozetone) and AdAPT-001, who star in “SNO White” (the SNO stands for S-nitrosothiols that convey nitric oxide (NO) bioactivity) is that, as well tolerated IO options, they may, either alone or in combination with other therapies, including other IOs, turn the tide – and the tables – on many different hard-to-treat tumor types like small cell lung cancer (SCLC), head and neck cancer (HNC), sarcoma, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), colorectal cancer, anal cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Call it an IO-U.