Oncolytics Biotech's stock soars 25% after pelareorep is selected for inclusion in late-stage pancreatic cancer trial

The stock of Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (ONC.T) soared 25% Thursday, after the San Diego-based company said its pelareorep therapy has been selected for inclusion in a an adaptive phase 3 pancreatic cancer clinical trial. An adaptive clinical trial is one which allows modifications to the trial or statistical procedures in the trial after it has been initiated. The phase 3 trial dubbed Precision PromiseSM is designed to accelerate registration pathways for pancreatic cancer therapies and should reduce the cost of a Phase 3 trial of pelareorep by 50% compared with a conventional trial. The trial has a primary endpoint of overall survival and will evaluate pelareorep in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor and the chemotherapeutic agents gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel.it can include multiple investigational treatments and control arms, "Data presented at SITC 2022 showed a near tripling of overall response rate for pelareorep + gemcitabine + nab-paclitaxel + a PD-L1 inhibitor compared to historical control trials," the company said in a statement. Oncolytics' stock has gained 63% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 14%.

-Ciara Linnane

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06-22-23 1313ET

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