Scientific journal highlights study of the DRP tool in cisplatin treatment for patients with lung cancer

Hoersholm, Denmark – March 22,  2018 – Oncology Venture Sweden AB:s (OV:ST) (“Oncology Venture” or “OV”) and Medical Prognosis Institute (MPI.ST) (“Medical Prognosis Institute” or “MPI”) announces positive study results for the diagnostic tool DRP® in lung cancer patients treated with cisplatin. The findings have been published in the scientific journal  PLOS ONE under the title “Molecular Prediction of adjuvant cisplatin efficacy in Non-small cell lung cancer – validation in two independent cohorts.”  Data from both a prospective randomized clinical trial and a Danish NSCLC patient cohort was assessed with the unique DRP® tool. DRP® was able to identify which patients benefitted most from treatment with cisplatin. The overall survival of patients that were assessed as most likely treatment responders based on a DRP® evaluation had a more than three times higher survival rate compared to patients assessed as less likely to respond.

The scientific article is based on data from a collaboration between MPI and clinicians at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, where gene expression from tumors of 228 patients with advanced NSCLC was evaluated. It was concluded that the DRP® multigene biomarkers of cisplatin and vinorelbine robustly identified responders to treatment with cisplatin and vinorelbine through two independent cohorts. The results underline the drugs’ potential clinical utility. Since the markers showed no prognostic ability in the observational cohort, they appear to be good predictors of the actual treatment benefit.

Selected data from the publication shows that the combined cisplatin-vinorelbine specific DRP® in the early setting of non-small cell lung cancer patients showed a statistically significant association with disease specific survival (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.27 (0.08-0.89), p=0.032 in the first study and HR = 0.14 (0.03-0.6), p=0.008, until 3 years after surgery in the second study). The cisplatin predictor alone reached similar results. All calculations have been undertaken by an external statistician that is independent from Oncology Venture and MPI.These results show that DRP® can facilitate the further development and the future potential use of Oncology Ventures cisplatin-based drug candidate LiPlaCis®.

“The positive results from the collaboration with Danish Rigshospitalet which have now been published in PLOS ONE is an important addition to the previously conducted prospective, retrospective and blinded studies of the diagnostic tool DRP®” said Peter Buhl Jensen, M.D., DMSc and CEO of Oncology Venture. “Cisplatin is one of the most important chemotherapeutics which is widely used around the world – and yet there is until now no biomarker in clinic to tell whether a patient is likely to benefit from the treatment or not. This adds further support to our LiPlaCis program.” Peter Buhl Jensen further added.

The scientific publication is available on the following link http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0194609 

About the DRP

Oncology Venture uses the Medical Prognosis Institute (MPI) multi gene DRP® technology to select those patients that, by the genetic signature in their cancer, is found to have a high likelihood of response to a given drug. The goal is to develop the drug for the right patients by screening patients before treatment, whereby the response rate can be significantly increased. The DRP® method builds on the comparison of sensitive vs. resistant human cancer cell lines including genomic information from cell lines combined with clinical tumor biology and clinical correlates in a systems biology network. The DRP® is based on messenger RNA from the patients’ biopsies. The DRP® platform (i.e. the DRP® and the PRP™ biomarkers) can be used in all cancer types, and is patented for more than 70 anti-cancer drugs in the US. The PRP™ is commercialized by MPI for Personalized Medicine. The DRP® is commercialized by Oncology Venture for drug development.

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About Oncology Venture Sweden AB 

Oncology Venture Sweden AB is engaged in the research and development of anti-cancer drugs via its wholly owned Danish subsidiary Oncology Venture ApS. Oncology Venture has an exclusive license to use the Drug Response Predictor (DRP™) technology in order to significantly increase the probability of success in clinical trials. DRP™ has proven its ability to provide a statistically significant prediction of clinical outcomes from drug treatment in cancer patients in 29 of the 37 clinical studies that were examined. The Company uses a model that alters the odds in comparison with traditional pharmaceutical development. Instead of treating all patients with a particular type of cancer, patients’ tumors’ genes are screened first with DRP™ and only those who are most likely to respond to the treatment will be treated. Via a more well-defined patient group, the risk and costs are reduced while the development process becomes more efficient.

The current product portfolio: LiPlaCis® for breast cancer in collaboration with Cadila Pharmaceuticals; Irofulven developed from a fungus for prostate cancer; and APO010 – an immuno-oncology product for multiple myeloma.

Oncology Venture has spun out two companies in Special Purpose Vehicles: 2X Oncology Inc. a US-based company focusing on precision medicine for women’s cancers with a pipeline of three promising Phase 2 product candidates, and Danish OV-SPV 2 which will test and potentially develop the Novartis small molecule kinase inhibitor. Oncology Venture currently owns 92% of 2X Oncology Inc. and 40% of OV-SPV2 ApS.

This is information that Oncology Venture Sweden AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above on March 22, 2018.