EU – Baltic States, Health, Latvia, Markets and Companies, Medicine

Repse believes that his main task in this capacity to promote the accessibility of virotherapy, in which cancer is fought with a special onclytic virus that can find and destroy the malicious tumor cells.

Jurgis Auzins, a co-founder of the Virotherapy Foundation, said that Repse has been tasked with taking care of virotherapy patients by providing them with the necessary protection and support.

"We are confident that Mr. Repse will be able to fulfill this mission successfully and create an organization that will not only provide support to the patients but will also make virotherapy widely accessible," said Auzins.

The Virotherapy Foundation, established on February 14, 2016, aims to ensure the accessibility of virotherapy and to take care of cancer patients, by protecting their rights, educating society and promoting scientific research.

The foundation will also provide financial assistance to cancer patients so that they can afford to receive virotherapy. The foundation will take over the provision of support to non-melanoma cancer patients that so far has been provided by Rigvir company, which paid a significant share of the medications' costs.

The European Commission has awarded a EUR 50,000 grant to Latvian company Latima for commercialization of a cancer virotherapy medicine in the EU markets. Latima, a company of Rigvir holding, which develops and promotes cancer virotherapy worldwide, has received the grant under the EU’s Horizon 2020 program “Dedicated support to biotechnology SMEs closing the gap from lab to market”.