OncoSec Medical Inc (ONCSQ)

[hschlauch]

I wouldn't be too surprised to see some partnerships beginning to develop with their first PIIM construct. If they are able to achieve what they have already in stage III/IV melanoma with just Immunopulse IL-12 and pembro, you can imagine what they are capable of doing when they add in two additional encoded products in a single plasmid. Moreover, the IL-12 expression profile using the P2A structure is an improvement on IRES. This first PIIM construct should improve neoantigen presentation intratumorally while simultaneously negating the immune suppression caused by Tregs. Improvements in presentation will lead to improvements in T cell activation, thus contributing to higher numbers of intratumoral CTLs. Not only will the treated tumors shrink, but so too will distant lesions.

I can see the company going the route that we have seen other companies take: partner for multiple solid tumor types and enroll patients concurrently. IND-enabling work for the first PIIM construct should be wrapping up and I anticipate clinical rollout soon after discussions with FDA. I think the rollout could be tied to an upfront payment to move things expeditiously through a phase I trial for multiple solid tumors. This is, of course, in my opinion.

I simply cannot imagine that a company developing an anti-PD-1 drug will just wait on the competition for potentially multiple solid tumor types. There is a LOT to lose if the anti-PD-1 combination with the first PIIM construct ends up achieving what I think it will. And if Oncosec demonstrates it can drive robust tumor-antigen specific immunity in patients across multiple solid tumor types, it will setup an adapt or die scenario for potentially hundreds of companies working on treatments for solid tumors. We aren't just talking about one single cancer indication, but an in situ platform that could be used for many solid tumors. If a company developing an anti-PD-1 allows their competition to partner on multiple solid tumors, guess who has the enormous advantage if the combo works in multiple solid tumors- right, it would be the first mover. It is a technological platform, not a single drug being tested in a single indication.