Only Pediatric Cancer

Childhood cancers are rare diseases and industry has so far disregarded the development of specific pediatric cancer drugs. Due to insufficient specific therapies for children with cancer, pediatric oncologists are forced to adjust adult cancer treatments for childhood cancer. From up to 120 approved drugs, around 30 have been used off-label in children but only 15 have pediatric use information in their labeling. Moreover, only six treatments designed specifically for pediatric cancer have been approved by the FDA. For these reasons, Oncoheroes was born to focus only on pediatric oncology drug development.

Higher Unmet Needs

Our current strategy is to prioritize projects related to pediatric cancer types that have the highest prevalence and the worse prognosis. We are developing and actively scouting for potential new generations of highly-targeted drugs for subsets of populations and tumors on:

• Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG)

• Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor (ATRT)

• Medulloblastoma

• Acute Myeloid Leukemia

• Neuroblastoma

• Rhabdomyosarcoma

• Ewing’s Sarcoma

• Osteosarcoma

Whole Spectrum Coverage

We cover the whole drug development spectrum, from bench to bedside.

At our discovery laboratory, inside the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), we conduct in-house research and we establish external collaborations to generate a pipeline of new IP projects.

Pediatric tumors differ greatly from their adult counterparts not only in their driver genetic mutations, but also in their unique developmental origin and tumor microenvironment. The direct consequence of these differences is that currently approved drugs, which were developed using adult models, fail in children.

Oncoheroes’ discovery lab has developed a proprietary highly-predictive pediatric screening platform to help us better develop therapies for children. We believe that the identification and characterization of new oncogenic pathways and their interconnection will facilitate the development of novel pediatric cancer drugs and ensure more effective and less toxic cancer treatments. 

The platform has been validated for medulloblastoma group 3 with industry standards and scalable to other pediatric cancers.

In addition to further support the development of the discovery unit’s candidates, we are actively identifying external clinic-ready assets for in-licensing, in order to obtain fast-track regulatory approval and provide substantial benefits to patients.

We have assembled a strong clinical development team and defined a comprehensive strategy in order to identify the most promising pediatric cancer drug candidates.

Oncoheroes’ robust process for asset selection relies on the following:

• Compelling science to address clinical need: Clear hypothesis to test in patients.

• Strong biology/medical rationale and reduced risk: biomarkers inclusion to ensure target engagement.

• Clear go/no-go decision points: Killer experiment to test hypothesis.

and continuously identifying and evaluating more assets