Sillajen said Monday that it has signed an agreement with ABL Europe, a global contract research and manufacturing biomedical organization, to develop a next-generation anticancer virus manufacturing process.

Under the agreement, ABL Europe plans to provide Sillajen with the overall production and quality control of its new anticancer virus JX-970, an anticancer virus that is made by recombinant DNA based on Western Reserve virus strain.

Sillajen also has exclusive rights to worldwide sales of JX-970, and plans to enforce additional rights by registering other patents based on data obtained through clinical trials in the future.

By removing the thymidine kinase enzyme and vaccinia growth factor, the virus activates the action mechanism that selectively kills the tumor. It also inserts granulocyte-macrophage colony, an immune inducer, to stimulate an immune response.

Sillajen began to conduct the initial phase of clinical trials for JX-970 at the Ottawa Hospital Center in Canada, in March last year. The company plans to enter entering various clinical trials for solid cancer in the first half of next year.

The agreement comes after ABL Europe signed a contract to produce JX-594 (Pexa-Vec), which is in phases 3 clinical trials for liver cancer. The company currently is in charge of supplying Pexa-Vec to 16 countries that approved the drug for clinical trials.