Calidi selects IL15 superagonist as first payload to be delivered into tumors

Calidi (CLDI) Biotherapeutics announced the selection of IL15 superagonist as the first payload to be delivered into tumors using its systemic antitumor virotherapy platform, RTNova. New preclinical data were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research, AACR, Annual Meeting on April 27, 2025, in Chicago, IL. The first candidate developed using RTNova is a vaccinia virus that is engineered to be tumor selective and produced in an enveloped form that allows the virus to survive bloodstream circulation and reach metastatic tumor sites where viral replication can destroy cancer cells while also activating an immune response. RTNova can be further engineered to deliver transgenes or gene medicines for expression in tumor cells. Data presented at AACR demonstrates that the ability of the enveloped virotherapy to express IL15 superagonist specifically in the tumor microenvironment measurably increases the number of complete responses, or tumor eliminations, in preclinical models after a single systemic administration.