Targovax presents ONCOS-102 scientific rationale at the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy

Studies to date have shown the ability of ONCOS-102 to immune activate patients with treatment refractory malignant mesothelioma at lesional level

Oslo, 21^th October, 2016: Targovax, a clinical stage company focused on developing and commercializing novel immuno-oncology combination therapies, has today presented the scientific rationale for the clinical development of ONCOS-102 in the treatment of malignant mesothelioma at the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy 2016 in Florence, Italy.

Lukasz Kuryk, Senior Research Scientist with Targovax, will review in-vitro, in-vivo and clinical data that support the clinical development of ONCOS-102 in malignant mesothelioma. This includes pre-clinical data demonstrating synergism between ONCOS-102 and pemetrexed/cisplatin, the standard of care for malignant mesothelioma.

Clinical data from a recently completed Phase I study show how ONCOS-102 was able to immune activate patients with treatment refractory malignant mesothelioma at a lesional level by performing both baseline and follow-up biopsies. The immune monitoring results show an increase in tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL), pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. One of the patients had tumor specific CD8+ T-cells detected systemically and later a 47% reduction of tumor burden measured on PET scan.

Lukasz Kuryk, Senior Research Scientist with Targovax, said, "We are very encouraged by these preliminary clinical data, which shows how ONCOS-102 acts as a tumor-targeted immune activator."

Gunnar Gårdemyr, CEO of Targovax, added, "ONCOS-102 is one of our highly targeted products arising from one of our two novel proprietary platforms. ONCOS-102 has Orphan Drug Designation for Mesothelioma in US and Europe and we believe that it has the potential to address a high unmet medical need in a very difficult to treat cancer indication"."

Targovax has recently initiated a randomized clinical trial in malignant mesothelioma in Europe where ONCOS-102 will be used in combination with pemetrexed/cisplatin. The trial's main objectives are determination of safety, immune activation at lesional level and in peripheral blood, clinical response and the correlation between clinical outcome and the immunological activation with a first read out in 2017.

ONCOS-102 is a purposefully engineered human serotype 5/3 adenovirus coding for human GM-CSF optimized to induce systemic anti-tumor T-cell response in cancer patients. In Phase I, ONCOS-102 treatment induced tumor specific immune activation both at systemic and lesional level. The immune activation was associated with clinical benefit.