Coherus to provide checkpoint drug for Oncolytics' anal cancer combination trial

Oncolytics Biotech has secured a source of Coherus Oncology's marketed PD-1 antibody Loqtorzi (toripalimab-tpzi) for a planned study in squamous cell anal carcinoma. The company announced the arrangement on 11 November 2026. The study will combine the antibody with pelareorep, Oncolytics' investigational oncolytic virus.

The study targets patients whose disease worsened after first-line chemotherapy plus a checkpoint inhibitor. Oncolytics describes this as a setting with no approved second-line treatment. That makes it a small but open niche for any developer that can show a signal.

The trial is expected to open in the first quarter of 2027 at a US cancer centre. Oncolytics said it expects to work with the institution that sponsors the study, but has not named it. The material available does not give the design, size, endpoints or financial terms of the agreement, or say whether any regulatory filing has been made.

As general context, drug-supply deals like this usually let a developer test a combination using another company's marketed product, without a wider commercial tie-up. Nothing in the announcement points to a licence, equity stake or milestone payments. Pelareorep remains investigational, and no efficacy or safety data exist yet from the planned study.