Sep 10, 2026 —
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Tudriqev (vusolimogene oderparepvec), an oncolytic virus immunotherapy from Replimune, for patients with unresectable advanced melanoma whose disease has progressed after PD-1 immunotherapy.
Formerly known as RP1, the therapy is an engineered, live-attenuated herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) designed to selectively infect and destroy cancer cells while stimulating an immune response; it encodes GM-CSF and a fusogenic glycoprotein. It is only the second oncolytic virus therapy to be approved, after Amgen’s Imlygic (talimogene laherparepvec), also in advanced melanoma.
Oncolytic viruses are a small but distinct branch of engineered-virus therapeutics, using the virus itself as the treatment.
