The UB spin-off, Oniria Therapeutics, VHIO and ICIQ obtain more than 1.7 million euros from the Ministry of Science and Innovation to advance the drug ONR-001 against resistant colon cancer
The spin-off of the University of Barcelona, biopharmaceutical company Oniria Therapeutics, Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and Institut Català d’Investigació Química (ICIQ) have joined forces to advance development of ONR-001, a new drug to treat colorectal cancer (CRC), and prepare it for clinical trials. ONR-001 is an innovative therapy developed by Oniria Therapeutics targeting aggressive solid and hematologic tumors that don’t respond to current treatments.
For this purpose, a public-private consortium has been established that will receive €1,772,651 in funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the European Union, through the CPP 2024 program. These funds will be used to carry out the whole regulatory preclinical phase with ONR-001, which includes conducting more experiments to demonstrate its efficacy in colorectal cancer, developing the Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) strategy and executing the regulatory preclinical studies needed to demonstrate its safety.
What sets ONR-001 apart from other therapies is that it hyperactivates the TET2 enzyme to a level that is lethal to persistent tumor cells, acting as an Achilles’ heel that, in preclinical studies, has been shown to significantly inhibit the progression of colon cancer, metastatic melanoma and acute myeloid leukemia. TET2 is a tumor suppressor gene that, when hyperactivated, leaves a mark in the DNA of tumor cells, forcing them to alter their function. Unable to adapt, the malignant cells die. This strategy, based on controlled activation of a protective gene, is a completely new approach to cancer treatment.
Colorectal cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer mortality
With approximately 1.9 million new cases and 900,000 deaths each year, colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world and one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In Spain, it is even more significant, as the most frequent type of malignant tumor: 41,167 new cases were diagnosed in 2024 alone, according to the Spanish Association Against Cancer.
“Tumor resistance and recurrence, often caused by cancer cells that survive initial therapies, are two of the greatest obstacles in treating colorectal cancer. With ONR-001, we are pursuing a targeted strategy to help overcome these challenges and improve long-term patient outcomes,” explains Dr. Hector G. Palmer, chief scientific officer and co-founder of Oniria Therapeutics, and head of the VHIO Stem Cells and Cancer Group.
“Collaborations like this are essential to facilitate the exchange of knowledge between research centers, in our case in chemical research applied to health, and the biomedical industry, helping accelerate innovative therapies that can benefit millions of patients,” notes Dr. Fernando Bravo, Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) manager at ICIQ.
“The whole Oniria Therapeutics team is excited to see that this project will allow us to take ONR-001 to Phase I clinical trials in 2027 and that we are moving forward according to the business plan to make it an effective new therapy for various tumors that are resistant to current treatments,” concludes Esther Riambau, CEO and co-founder of Oniria Therapeutics.
At the same time, the biopharmaceutical company is also working to bring ONR-001 to the clinical phase for patients with metastatic melanoma and other indications where evidence of efficacy has already been obtained.
In 2024, Oniria Therapeutics was named one of the 10 most disruptive companies by the Government of Catalonia (ACCIÓ) and received the Catalan Society of Biology Award for its outstanding work to overcome cancer persistence.
Project CPP2024-011292 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, EU.