NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[OncoJock]

Who's on First? Philly Baseball Fans Love DCVax



Dear fellow iHubbers:

There seems to be a growing connection between DCVax and baseball in the Philadelphia region.

A small number of Philadelphia-area $NWBO fans -- some of whom also happen to be Phillies fans -- are active on social media. A far larger number of area residents have not yet heard of $NWBO, but are keenly aware of the tragic toll taken among Phillies players by glioblastoma multiforme (GBM).

Philly-Area $NWBO Fans

Here is a brief list of Philly-area $NWBO fans with a social media presence. Please let me know if I've missed anyone.

1) Dr. Steven Brem, a prominent neurosurgeon at the University of Pennsylvania, is a key investigator in the phase 3 trial with an active Twitter account: @StevenBremMD

2) Ray Tancredi, a vice president at Walgreens and a Greater Philadelphia resident, recently spoke at a specialty pharmacy conference in Las Vegas. In his talk, Mr. Tancredi made clear that DCVax-L is on his radar. Importantly, he included it by its brand name (as opposed to its nonproprietary name of murcidencel), along with 12 other products listed by their nonproprietary names, in a preview of up-and-coming cell and gene therapies in the pipeline. Here is a link to a report on his talk: https://www.ajmc.com/view/an-overview-of-the-specialty-therapy-pipeline-in-2023. Cell and gene therapy is a major contributor to the economy in Philadelphia, due in large part to Novartis' success with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells used to treat leukemia and lymphoma. Mr. Tancredi doesn't appear to be active on Twitter, but he maintains an account on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ray-tancredi-6246324/.

In a personal email to our fellow iHubber branster, Mr. Tancredi revealed his personal interest in DCVax due to the increasingly infamous connection between glioblastoma and Phillies baseball. (See photo above, Post #590797, and next section of this post.)

3) Our own A E Kusterer, whose anonymity I will try not to compromise here, shares with us the results of his due diligence in his capacity as Head of Research at Alphavest Capital. He lives near the city, and tweets using the handle @alphavestcap. If memory serves, AEK had a very dear friend who died of GBM. Not sure how AEK feels about the Phillies, but certain he's an athlete who loves to row on the Schuylkill River.

4) Yours truly, a fair-weather Phillies fan and medical writer who learned about murcidencel while writing an assessment of need for physician education on the topic of new treatments for GBM, and who had a much-beloved colleague die suddenly from GBM in 2021. (My Twitter handle is @Onco_Jock.)

Phillies Baseball Connection to GBM

Many Philadelphia-area residents are keenly aware of GBM since editors at the local newspaper noticed an unusual concentration of fatal GBM cases among Phillies players. Some have linked these deaths to chemicals used in the manufacture of the artificial turf used at now-demolished Veterans Stadium. Awareness of the Phillies-GBM connection was heightened with the March 7, 2023 publication of a front-page article titled "Field of Dread" in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer. (See photo above.) In their investigative report, Barbara Laker and David Gambacorta spelled out the hypothetical link between the presence of large amounts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -- so-called "forever chemicals" -- contained in Astroturf and the untimely deaths of Johnny Oates, Tug McGraw, David West, John Vukovich, Ken Brett, and Dan Quisenberry.

Who's on Deck?
As we all know, baseball is a spectator sport that gets more interesting in the spring. Now it appears $NWBO is in the same ballpark. Last May -- almost exactly a year ago -- our hopes soared like a towering fly ball and then were dashed like a catch on the warning track by events many of us watched unfold simultaneously on Wall Street and at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS).

This spring the excitement continues with a 16% spike in the share price yesterday, mention of DCVax at the NYAS again this week during a session facilitated by a NWBO employee, and recent publication of 2 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals supporting the promising phase 3 trial results reported last fall in JAMA Oncology. A report from the company on its operations during the first quarter of 2023 could be filed any day with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and another investor-friendly show in the product theater at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is scheduled in June.

But it's really something else that is keeping members of the NWBO forum on iHub on the edges of our seats. No one knows when the really big pitch will be delivered but we do know the wind-up has been excruciatingly slow. Any day now (but honestly it could be weeks or months away, dear God hopefully not more than a year), we expect to see a company press release announcing that a marketing authorization application (MAA) has been accepted for review by the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Even that event, however, will not relieve our suspense until the MHRA review is complete and we find out whether the big pitch results in an exhilarating grand slam or just another frustrating strikeout.

Best wishes to all,

-- OJ