On April 17, 2026 Theriva Biologics (NYSE American: TOVX), ("Theriva" or the "Company"), a diversified clinical-stage company developing therapeutics designed to treat cancer and related diseases in areas of high unmet need, reported an upcoming poster presentation of new data and subgroup analyses from the VIRAGE Phase 2b clinical trial evaluating VCN-01 (zabilugene almadenorepvec) plus gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel in newly-diagnosed metastatic pancreatic cancer patients. Tumor reponse, biomarker data, and subgroup analyses are to be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting to be held in San Diego, CA from 17-22 April 2026.
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Details of the poster presentation are below:
Presenting author: Dr. Manuel Hidalgo, NYU Langone Health Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York, NY
Title: Analysis of tumor and biomarker responses in the VIRAGE Trial, a randomized Phase IIb, open-label, study of nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine with/without intravenous VCN-01 in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPDAC)
Poster #: CT162
Date and time: Monday April 20, 2026, 2:00-5:00 PM US PDT
Session: PO.CT01.05 – Phase II and Phase III Clinical Trials
Location: San Diego Convention Center, Hall B, Section 52, Board 26.
"The new data and analyses to be presented at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) meeting further reinforce our confidence in the clinical potential of VCN-01 plus gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel chemotherapy to help metastatic PDAC patients," said Steven A. Shallcross, Chief Executive Officer of Theriva Biologics. "Taken together, the tumor response and biomarker data support an immune-mediated mode of action for VCN-01, which is consistent with the previously reported clinical observations, showing that patients treated with VCN-01 plus gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel experienced a significantly protracted duration of response concomitant with a later-stage prolongation of survival compared to patients treated with gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel alone. We have achieved alignment with both the FDA and the EMA on a proposed pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate multiple doses of VCN-01 plus gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel in first-line metastatic PDAC patients, and we are planning a small study to assess whether more frequent and extended VCN-01 dosing could further improve outcomes."
About Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma
Cancer of the pancreas consists of two main histological types: cancer that arises from the ductal (exocrine) cells of the pancreas or, much less often, cancers may arise from the endocrine compartment of the pancreas. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma ("PDAC") accounts for more than 90% of all pancreatic tumors. It can be located either in the head of the pancreas or in the body/tail. Pancreatic cancer usually metastasizes to the liver and peritoneum. Other less common metastatic sites are the lungs, brain, kidney, and bone. In its early stages, pancreatic cancer does not typically result in any characteristic symptoms. In many instances, progressive abdominal pain is the first symptom. Therefore, in most cases, pancreatic cancer is diagnosed in its late stages (locally advanced non-metastatic or metastatic stage of the disease) when surgical resection and possibly curative treatment is not possible. It is generally assumed that only 10% of cases are resectable at presentation, whereas 30-40% of patients are diagnosed at local advanced/unresectable stage and 50-60% present with distant metastases.
About VCN-01
VCN-01 (zabilugene almadenorepvec) is a systemically administered oncolytic adenovirus designed to selectively and aggressively replicate within tumor cells and degrade the tumor stroma that serves as a significant physical and immunosuppressive barrier to cancer treatment. This unique mode-of-action enables VCN-01 to exert multiple antitumor effects by (i) selectively infecting and lysing tumor cells; (ii) enhancing the access and perfusion of co-administered chemotherapy products; and (iii) increasing tumor immunogenicity and exposing the tumor to the patient’s immune system and co-administered immunotherapy products. Systemic administration enables VCN-01 to exert its actions on both the primary tumor and metastases. VCN-01 has been administered to 142 patients to date in clinical trials of different cancers, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (in combination with chemotherapy), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (with an immune checkpoint inhibitor), ovarian cancer (with CAR-T cell therapy), colorectal cancer, and retinoblastoma (by intravitreal injection). More information on these clinical trials is available at Clinicaltrials.gov.
(Press release, Theriva Biologics, APR 17, 2026, View Source [SID1234664514])