SAN DIEGO and PENNINGTON, N.J., Aug. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OncoSec Medical Incorporated (OncoSec) (NASDAQ:ONCS), a company developing intratumoral cancer immunotherapies, today announced an enhancement to the company's medical and clinical leadership with the appointment of Alain Algazi, MD to the position of Clinical Strategic Advisor. A leading expert in melanoma and oncology research, Dr. Algazi will advise OncoSec on its current clinical programs and research initiatives, including the rapidly advancing PISCES/KEYNOTE-695 Phase 2b clinical trial, which is evaluating the use of TAVO (tavokinogene telseplasmid) in combination with KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.

In addition to his clinical experience treating patients with high-risk and advanced melanoma, Dr. Algazi is widely recognized for his leadership in melanoma research and for helping to grow the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Program at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) into one of the preeminent programs for advanced care for patients with all stages of melanoma.  As an academic collaborator and the principal investigator for several of OncoSec's pivotal trials, he has also been instrumental in the development of OncoSec's melanoma pipeline and the advancement of TAVO as a potential treatment for multiple cancer indications, either as a monotherapy or in combination with leading checkpoint inhibitors.

"Alain has been very instrumental to the growth and success of OncoSec and the advancement of TAVO as a potential best-in-class cytokine-based intratumoral immunotherapy," said Sharron Gargosky, Chief Clinical Officer of OncoSec. "In elevating his role at OncoSec, we have the opportunity to further benefit from his extensive knowledge of melanoma and oncology as both a practitioner and researcher, as well as his deep understanding of TAVO and its ability to stimulate the body's immune system to target and attack cancer."

Dr. Algazi, a member of OncoSec's Clinical Advisory Board, was the lead investigator on the OMS-102 clinical trial, which is an open-label, Phase 2 multicenter study of TAVO in combination with pembrolizumab in melanoma patients with immunologically cold tumors.  As Clinical Strategic Advisor, Dr. Algazi will assume an even broader role, providing medical expertise and strategic guidance on all of OncoSec's clinical trials.

Dr. Alain Algazi, an oncologist, is an Associate Professor at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He treats patients with advanced cancers of the head and neck as well as high-risk skin cancers. Dr. Algazi established and leads the head and neck medical oncology research program at UCSF and he conducts clinical trials to enhance anticancer immune responses with the goal helping more patients with previously incurable head and neck and skin cancer to achieve long-term remission.  He has also served as the national study chair for studies of targeted therapy in melanoma and he has contributed to a number of pivotal clinical trials including early trials of the PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab, nivolumab with ipilimumab for patients with melanoma brain metastases, and intratumoral anti-tumor immune stimulation with tavokinogene telseplasmid.

Dr. Algazi earned a medical degree at the UCLA School of Medicine and completed an internal medicine residency at UCLA Medical Center. He completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF. He has been a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Melanoma Panel.

About OncoSec Immunotherapies

OncoSec is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing cytokine-based intratumoral immunotherapies to stimulate the body's immune system to target and attack cancer.  OncoSec's lead immunotherapy platform – TAVO (tavokinogene telseplasmid) – enables the intratumoral delivery of DNA-based interleukin-12 (IL-12), a naturally occurring protein with immune-stimulating functions. The technology, which employs electroporation, is designed to produce a controlled, localized expression of IL-12 in the tumor microenvironment, enabling the immune system to target and attack tumors throughout the body. OncoSec has built a deep and diverse clinical pipeline utilizing TAVO as a potential treatment for multiple cancer indications either as a monotherapy or in combination with leading checkpoint inhibitors; with the latter potentially enabling OncoSec to address a great unmet medical need in oncology: anti-PD-1 non-responders.  Results from recently completed clinical studies of TAVO have demonstrated a local immune response, and subsequently, a systemic effect as either a monotherapy or combination treatment approach.  In addition to TAVO, OncoSec is identifying and developing new DNA-encoded therapeutic candidates and tumor indications for use with its ImmunoPulse® platform. For more information, please visit www.oncosec.com.

The information stated above was prepared by OncoSec Medical Incorporated and reflects solely the opinion of OncoSec. Nothing in this statement shall be construed to imply any support or endorsement of OncoSec, or any of its products, by the Regents of the University of California, its officers, agents and employees.

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SOURCE OncoSec Medical Incorporated