OncoSec inks research deal to analyze clinical trial participants

OncoSec Medical (NSDQ:ONCS) said today that it inked a research deal with Dr. Roger Lo and his research team at the University of California Los Angeles to study participants from the biotech company’s Pisces/Keynote-695 Phase IIb clinical trial.

Dr. Lo and his team are slated to perform genetic, transcriptomic and methylomic analyses of patients from OncoSec’s melanoma trial, which is focused on the intra-tumoral delivery of tavokinogene telseplasmid combined with Merck‘s (NYSE:MRK) Keytruda for people with metastatic melanoma.

“UCLA and Dr. Lo represent an ideal collaborator for OncoSec to augment our ongoing Pisces/Keynote-695 Phase IIb clinical program with specialized research designed to pinpoint the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that correspond to specific clinical outcomes in the treatment of metastatic melanoma with TAVO in combination with pembrolizumab,” Christopher Twitty, Oncosec’s chief scientific officer, said in prepared remarks.

“The Pisces/Keynote-695 Phase IIb study continues to progress as planned with enrollment in Stage 1 expected to be complete in the third quarter 2018 and topline data anticipated prior to year-end. Our collaboration with Lo Lab has the potential to not only offer important insights into the mechanism of action of TAVO in combination with pembrolizumab for the treatment of metastatic melanoma, but could be applicable across our clinical pipeline, including the ongoing Keynote-890 Phase IIb trial of TAVO in combination with pembrolizumab in triple negative breast cancer,” Twitty added.

Earlier this year, OncoSec expanded its relationship with Merck and announced a deal to combine its ImmunoPulse IL-12 device with Merck’s Keytruda in a Phase II trial of patients with triple negative breast cancer.

The trial is designed to study the drug-device combination in patients with inoperable locally advanced or metastatic cancer who have failed at least one systemic chemotherapy or immunotherapy.

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