Matthew Mulvey
CTO

Matt Mulvey is SVP and Chief Technology Officer of Replay. He is a successful scientist-entrepreneur who co-founded and led the oncolytic virus company BeneVir through a $1.04B pre-clinical acquisition by Janssen in 2018. He has 20 years experience in the molecular genetic design and development of oncolytic and gene therapy vectors based on Herpes Simplex Virus-1 (HSV-1).

He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1997 with degrees in Religion and Molecular Biology & Biochemistry. He then became the first person in the lab of Ian Mohr, a newly appointed Assistant Professor of Microbiology at NYU Langone School of Medicine. Beginning in 1999, Mohr and Mulvey published a series of papers that deciphered the enhanced tumor-specific replication mechanism behind SUP1, their proprietary attenuated oncolytic virus based on HSV-1. Due to the strength of this work, SUP1 IP was licensed to BioVex to create Imlygic (talimogene laherparepvec), the only oncolytic virus approved by FDA or EMA. Amgen bought BioVex in 2011 for $1B.

Mulvey co-founded BeneVir in 2011 with Ian Mohr and Katie Sacksteder. BeneVir completed a $12M Series A in 2014 and was acquired by the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson in 2018 for $140M upfront and $900M in development milestones for a total deal value of $1.04B.

The BeneVir platform is based on T-Stealth™ technology, which overcomes a major barrier to the clinical success of oncolytic viruses. BeneVir’s T-StealthTM oncolytic viruses hide from the immune system in order to continue to destroy cancer cells, both directly and through activation of the immune system. The platform is capable of expressing at least 5 distinct immunomodulatory payloads to improve OV killing of cancer and stromal cells as well as reverse immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. He also led development of a robust, scalable animal product-free manufacturing process that solved the major issues affecting GMP manufacturing of viral vectors based on HSV-1.

After Janssen acquired BeneVir, he continued to lead all aspects of platform and product development until joining Replay in 2021.