Killing Cancer Loudly: Onchilles Pharma's Neutrophil-Derived Path to Pan-Cancer Therapy

What if a drug could kill cancer cells broadly, spare the immune system and then train it to keep fighting, without triggering resistance? That's the promise behind the ELANE pathway, a mechanism discovered not from a hypothesis but from studying fundamental biology in patients. In this episode of the In Vivo Podcast, Court Turner, CEO and co-founder of Onchilles Pharma, and Lev Becker, CSO and scientific founder, discuss how a neutrophil elastase-based mechanism is being translated into N17350, a first-in-class intratumoral agent targeting solid tumours including head and neck, skin and breast cancers. With $40m raised, GMP manufacturing of thousands of clinical doses completed, a US IND approved, and a first-in-human study underway in Australia, Onchilles is moving from "stubborn optimism" to clinical execution. Court and Lev discuss the dual mechanism that sets N17350 apart from both traditional chemotherapy and immunotherapy, why histone H1 functions as a universal tumour vulnerability rather than a conventional biomarker, and how they're thinking about combinations, partnering and the eventual value story for payers.