Accurius eyes $7 million fund raise for novel anti-cancer therapy, to leverage India for clinical trials & manufacturing

The therapy also activates memory B and T cells, offering long-term protection against relapse. (Representational image)

Accurius Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotech startup, is raising $7 million in its first institutional round to accelerate development of its novel oncolytic viral immunotherapy targeting lung cancers. The company plans to leverage India for clinical trials and manufacturing, citing cost efficiencies and access to patient populations.

The fundraise complements $14 million in non-dilutive grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and follows an earlier $0.5 million friends-and-family round. “This capital will support process development, GMP manufacturing, and our first-in-human study,” said Mallikarjun Srivatsan, CEO of Accurius. “We’re also setting up operations in India, with a preference for Bangalore, and have already identified a CDMO partner for manufacturing.”

Srivatsan said the company is exploring trial sites in India, Australia, and the US, with a pre-IND (Investigational New Drug) meeting with the USFDA expected within six months of closing the round. Phase 1 trials will enroll 15–30 patients with lung-localized cancers, including non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic tumors.

What is Oncolytic Viral Immunotherapy?

Unlike traditional vaccines that prevent disease, Accurius’ therapy uses engineered viruses to treat existing cancers. The company’s platform is built on modified influenza and avian paramyxoviruses that infect tumor cells and break them apart (a process called "lysis"). As the virus destroys cancer cells, it releases signals that alert the body’s immune system to attack the cancer more effectively. The immune system also learns to recognize the cancer, so if it comes back, the body is better prepared to fight it again.

“These viruses infect and lyse tumor cells, releasing antigens that train the immune system to recognize and attack cancer,” Srivatsan explained. “It’s like opening factories with checkpoint inhibitors, but our virus brings the workers—the immune cells—to the site.”

The therapy also activates memory B and T cells, offering long-term protection against relapse. “We’ve seen in preclinical models that even after reintroducing tumor cells, the immune system prevents regrowth,” he said.

Srivatsan said in mouse models, the therapy not only shrank tumors at the injection site but also reduced tumors elsewhere in the body, demonstrating a systemic immune response. The treated mice lived significantly longer compared to untreated ones, indicating both efficacy and durability of the response. When tumor cells were reintroduced after initial treatment, the mice did not develop new tumors, suggesting the therapy activates memory B and T cells, which help the immune system remember and fight cancer if it returns. The therapy worked as a standalone and in combination with checkpoint inhibitors like Keytruda, especially in “cold tumors” where immune cells typically don’t respond.

Accurius joins a growing field of companies developing oncolytic therapies, including Amgen’s USFDA-approved T-VEC and CG Oncology, which recently raised $1.7 billion in an IPO. However, Accurius is the only company globally developing regional pulmonary delivery for lung cancers using respiratory viruses.

“Our approach is simple, scalable, and personalized internally,” Srivatsan said. “Unlike CAR-T, which requires complex ex vivo manipulation, our therapy is off-the-shelf and adapts to each patient’s tumor.”

Founded in 2019, Accurius is built on research from Mount Sinai and aims to secure biopharma partnerships post-clinical validation. “We’re not just building a drug—we’re building a platform,” Srivatsan said.