ErVimmune

ErVimmune is a French preclinical biotechnology company founded in October 2019 by Prof. Stéphane Depil, an onco-hematologist and researcher at the Centre Léon Bérard and Cancer Research Center of Lyon. A spin-off from the Centre Léon Bérard, ErVimmune specializes in developing next-generation cancer vaccines and cell therapies that target ‘cold tumors’ – cancers that do not respond to current immunotherapies.

The company’s innovative approach is based on identifying and selecting new sources of unconventional tumor epitopes derived from human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs). Because of their similarity to viral protein fragments recognized as foreign by the immune system, HERV-derived antigens are prime targets, shared by different tumors, for the development of cancer vaccines and T-cell based immunotherapies, especially in tumors that respond poorly to current treatments. The first indications represent two major unmet medical needs: triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), accounting for approximately 15% of breast cancer cases worldwide and known for its aggressivity, and ovarian cancer, the deadliest cancer among women globally.