ORCA Therapeutics receives up to € 5 Million Innovation Credit from Dutch Government

November 08, 2011

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – November 8th, 2011 – ORCA Therapeutics BV, a pioneer in the development of innovative virotherapies for treatment of cancer, announces today that it has received an innovation credit of up to € 5 million from Agentschap NL, an agency executing programmes for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, to support development of its lead compound ORCA-010 for prostate cancer.

The innovation credit is a credit facility from Agentschap NL dedicated to highly innovative projects. Under the terms of the agreement, ORCA receives € 1,058,000 to support the initial stage of the project, with the outlook for additional funding up to € 5 Million upon successful completion of specific milestones. The credit will become repayable subject to the commercial success of the project.

"We are delighted to receive this facility for our lead program, as these funds are only provided to innovative projects with strong commercial prospects," said Janneke Meulenberg, Chief Executive Officer of ORCA Therapeutics. "This credit will allow us to take the next steps in preclinical and clinical development of our ORCA-010 product for treatment of prostate cancer patients”.

ORCA-010 is a new, highly potent oncolytic adenovirus that can target multiple cancer indications. ORCA-010 is based on ORCA’s proprietary T1 technology. Preclinical studies have demonstrated that ORCA-010 has superior oncolytic potency as compared to current state of the art oncolytic adenoviruses in a variety of cancer cell lines.

About ORCA Therapeutics

ORCA Therapeutics BV is a biopharmaceutical company developing a pipeline of innovative anticancer therapies based on the highly promising approach of Oncolytic Replication Competent Agents (ORCA). ORCA Therapeutics’ technology and IP portfolio originates from the research performed at the Department of Medical Oncology at the VU University Medical Center (VUmc) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The company has a platform of technologies that are predominantly based on highly engineered oncolytic adenoviruses. ORCA Therapeutics is currently preparing its lead product ORCA-010 for testing in clinical trials.

For more information, please contact:
ORCA Therapeutics BV
Janneke Meulenberg, CEO
+31-204441826
meulenberg@orca-therapeutics.com
www.orca-therapeutics.com