Oncorus, a viral immunotherapies company focused on driving innovation to transform outcomes for cancer patients and a company spun out of the University of Pittsburgh, recently initiated an initial public stock offering, raising nearly $90 million as it enters clinical trials on its oncolytic virus cancer therapy. That amount is being called the “largest IPO of a Pitt spinout” by the University’s Innovation Institute.
The technology for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company was licensed from Pitt from the lab of Joseph Glorioso, PhD, professor of microbiology and molecular genetics in Pitt’s School of Medicine and an affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Glorioso was one of the founders of Oncorus and is chair of the company’s scientific advisory board. The company, founded in 2016, had previously raised approximately $140 million in private investment.
“It’s great. It’s a substantial amount of money,” Dr. Glorioso said. “It’s really based on not only the technology within the company being tested in patients, but also other technologies that are very exciting and will be used to treat people with cancer.”
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