RE:itntdfThat would seem to be a case of 1 + 1 equals 0 and That doesn’t seem to square with the facts.
When PanCan selected Oncy, it was to go into a Phase 3 clinical trial as stated in the following PR:
SAN DIEGO, CA and CALGARY, AB, June 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncolytics Biotech® Inc. (NASDAQ: ONCY) (TSX: ONC) today announced pelareorep has been selected for inclusion as a new investigational treatment in Precision PromiseSM, an innovative adaptive Phase 3 clinical trial. The Precision Promise study is designed to evaluate pelareorep in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor and the chemotherapeutic agents gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel. If successful, the clinical study is expected to support approval of the studied combination as a treatment for first-line metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).
In contrast, the $5 million grant was for an EARLY-PHASE clinical trial. It would make no sense to postpone an immediate Phase 3-ready situation to wait for something to go through a Phase 1/Phase 2 undertaking so that both could be rolled into a Phase 3 trial.
If that were the case, Oncy MIGHT be ready to market around 2030.
The following is from the $5 million grand announcement:
The Therapeutic Accelerator Award enables the next phase of research for this exciting work by funding an early-phase clinical trial testing the investigational treatment combination: Oncolytics’ proprietary reovirus pelareorep in combination with modified FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy with or without an immune checkpoint inhibitor. If the results are encouraging, the goal is to pursue later-stage clinical trial testing through the PanCAN Precision PromiseSM adaptive clinical trial platform.
The following taken from the Precision Promise announcement might be why the 90 day time frame was not met:
"Our next step is to engage with stakeholders to finalize the protocol for Precision Promise's pelareorep-containing investigational treatment so that we can enter into this study...”
Those stakeholders reference might well be Bristol-Myers Squibb which manufactures nab-paclitaxel and Eli Lilly and Co. which manufactures gemcitabine as well as the company which manufactures the checkpoint inhibitor which will be used in the trial.