News release EDMONTON, AB, June 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Quest PharmaTech Inc. (TSXV: QPT) ("Quest" or the "Company") announces that clinical investigators working with OncoQuest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("OQP") lead clinical candidate oregovomab, will be making two presentations as part of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference proceedings. OQP acquired oregovomab from OncoQuest Inc., one of the equity investee companies (45%) of Quest PharmaTech Inc.
The first presentation by Dr. Angeles Alvarez Secord, Principal Investigator and Associate Director of Clinical Research at Duke Cancer Institute of Duke University will update the research community on progress with the ongoing FLORA 5 phase III clinical study of front-line carboplatin-paclitaxel-oregovomab chemotherapy. This double blind and placebo controlled multinational trial is currently accruing patients at centers in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia and is adding additional centers and participating geographies. This study seeks to confirm the observations of Brewer et al in Gynecologic Oncology 2020 that demonstrated how oregovomab in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel could dramatically improve both progression free and overall survival relative to chemotherapy in the absence of incremental toxicity.
The second oregovomab report at ASCO being presented by Dr. Robert Holloway, Medical Director of the Gynecologic Oncology Program at Florida Hospital is an abstract presentation of the results from the Phase 1b oregovomab clinical trial protocol ORE-QPT-003H. The report titled, "Final survival follow up and translational associations using interval indirect immunization with oregovomab (O) and poly ICLC (Hiltonol®) (H) in patients (pts) with recurrent platinum resistant ovarian cancer" evaluated heavily pretreated patients with recurrent ovarian cancer receiving an indirect immunization with oregovomab in combination with the TLR3 agonist polyICLC (Hiltonol®). The median OS was 15 months in this advance disease population and 4 patients remained alive at the data lock. The study established that Hiltonol® is a suitable candidate for augmenting immune response in the immune suppressed heavily advanced disease population and pointed to novel approaches to the management of this difficult and unmet medical need.
"OQP remains on track for seeking registration of its lead product oregovomab in the front-line ovarian cancer setting, and continues to explore optimal combinations with various immune-adjuvants for the recurrent setting" said Dr. Sunil Gupta MD, FRCPC, Chief Medical Officer of OncoQuest Pharmaceuticals, Inc. "We are accelerating the enrollment of the FLORA-5 study as more countries and centers come on board."
On corporate matters, Quest announces that it will be holding its annual, general and special meeting of shareholders on Monday, July 5, 2021 at 11:00 am at the Company's corporate office in Edmonton. Due to Covid 19 concerns, shareholders are encouraged to attend remotely. Quest also announces that its annual audited financial statements and MD&A for the year ended January 31, 2021 have recently been filed on SEDAR and can be viewed at www.sedar.com. Lastly, Quest announces the granting of 1,250,000 stock options to officers, at an exercise price of $0.115 per common share, expiring 10 years from the date of grant, subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.