More advanced Oncosec data look good, but not good enough

When Oncosec’s Keytruda combo data release caused its stock to crash last November the blame was put by some on the results having simply been too early. Last week an updated analysis including more study subjects was unveiled, and the result was... almost exactly the same. Cue another share price collapse, this time of 25%. The study in question, Keynote-695, concerns the company’s electroporation-delivered IL-12 gene therapy, Tavo, given with Keytruda to anti-PD-1-relapsed melanoma patients; it was begun because an initial trial, OMS-I102, saw 11 of 22 subjects predicted to be anti-PD-1 non-responders go into remission, prompting suggestions that Tavo could make “cold” tumours immunogenic. Friday’s readout concerned 21 subjects (33 have now been enrolled), and showed a remission rate of 24% – better than the 20% bar set in Keynote-695's design, but much lower than OMS-I102 had promised, and in line with the 22% seen in Keynote-695’s first iteration, in nine subjects (SITC 2018 – Nektar’s big reveal falls flat, November 11, 2018). Investors still keeping the faith in Oncosec must now believe that, given more time, some non-responders will go into remission.