ONCS Announces Collaboration with MERCK for P2 PISCES Trial

ONCS will sponsor (fund the trial) and Merck will supply Keytruda. Not sure if this will really resonate with the market since it is just collaboration and not a JV partnership with up front cash. Still good news nonetheless:

The collaboration agreement is between OncoSec Medical Incorporated and Merck, through a subsidiary. Under the agreement, OncoSec will sponsor and fund the study and Merck will provide KEYTRUDA®. Additional details of the collaboration were not disclosed.

I hate to be a downer here, but Merck just did not step up with this collaboration, and now I'm nervous. What news do we potentially have over the next few months to keep the stock price from bleeding down. Obviously there's the start of the PISCES trial, but then what?? All I can think of is some uplifting news with TNBC trial....that's pretty much it. How much of a spike will that really give us aside from Breakthrough designation which appears to be a huge long-shot. Am I missing anything?

ir.oncosec.com/press-releases/detail/1905/oncosec-announces-clinical-collaboration-with-merck-to

No funding, so not sure if this is a very positive development for us...what are people's thoughts?

Hey JHam....agree that it's nice to see Merck involved here. It would be great to hear your thoughts on what appears to be a high likelihood of a capital raise sometime during Q3.

It's a very realistic scenario that this PR along with the start of the PISCES trial will be the only PR's we see over the next few months. So, what will support the stock price during Q3? Will we be doing a capital raise off a sub $1 price? I would like to think that's not even a remote possibility, but what other catalysts are there to lift us back up to a respectable price range during the next few months? Trading patterns during 2017 certainly indicate more of a trickle-down. I was hoping there would be some strong language in the PR from a Merck representative which would help establish a new price range, but that didn't happen, so I am very concerned about the terms of this next capital raise.

I understand why you'd be frustrated if you were expecting strong language in today's PR. I think that will only happen once there is money involved in the deal (a la Advaxis/Merck). I hoped the news with Merck in big letters in the headline would get some attention for the company, and that maybe there would be something more to the collaboration besides just supplying Keytruda, but PD is sticking to his no-deals-until-P2-data policy I guess.

I don't think they are going to get much if any non-dilutive funding, like PD has mentioned every earnings call since 2013. It would be crazy for them to do a big raise at these levels, imo. They could do some kind of smaller bridge financing just to hold them over or an ATM if PD could manage to do it.

So yeah, it could be a flat/rocky couple months if they don't have anything good to PR. But imo, that has been the case for a while now. There has been no news since they released data in late February, and the pps has still floated around the same levels.

Here are the milestones left for the end of 2017. The last one would obviously be big if it happens:

• Initiation of "PISCES” registration-directed trial in stage III/IV melanoma anti-PD-1 nonresponder population
• Announcement of key collaborations and technology access program using TRACE™- enabled delivery technology
• IND preparation for first-in-human studies for the next clinical candidate in 2018
• Secure licensing or commercial partnership(s)

Disappointed with the weak PR, was hoping to see someone from MRK comment on the trial. However, agree with JHam that PD's strategy is to see what they have first before they negotiate a deal. It's a big risk if the trial does not meet endpoints but if it does, then this is going to be a double digit stock (and maybe triple digit on BO). As for near term milestone, note the bullet point in bold in JHam's post. They've listed licensing/commercial partnership. I think it would be too early for this to stem from the registration trial. My guess is an ex-US partnership is in the works. Only a little more than 6 months before we find out. Until then, it is definitely going to be rocky waters. Agree that they should seek ATM financing at this juncture.

Agree with prior posts. Message I sent out this morning is below fwiw. My hope is that Punit knew people would "sell the news" on the drug supply partnership, so he has follow-on news coming soon. When the trial starts, that PR may provide additional details on the trial protocol and when interim data is expected. With perhaps only 6 months to go before we see interim data, that could be a catalyst.
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ONCS - Drug supply collaboration with Merck was announced today. While it popped, it didn't go as high as I was hoping. I sold 25% at $1.25 during premarket. Holding the rest for follow-on news. Many people were expecting this news and thus "sold the news".

The Risk - With less than 1 year of cash on the balance sheet, ONCS is now at risk to execute a dilutive capital raise at any time.

The Upside - It's possible they release additional news before they decide to raise capital. Potential news items are: Start of registrational trial with Merck, TNBC results, ASCO late-breaking abstract, regional partnership/licensing deal which is guided for sometime in 2017.

This all feels far too much like ACTC and Gary Rabin (the company could already get a deal but they want to generate more data to get a better deal). IMO, a company that's been in a death spiral for years wouldn't turn down a decent offer from Merck so I feel it's fair to assume Merck hasn't seen enough to offer them anything (not saying this is certain, but probable IMO).

I do think there's a chance this is just playing it's necessary course (there are the Dendreon, Human Genome Sciences, Celator, etc. cases where you can see companies that looked dead RIGHT before they popped 10x+), it's just hard to endure when there's no certainty that's the case. It's also fair to mention that biotech investing has been tricky across the board, not just in ONCS-land.

I just don't get the feel that Merck feels like ONCS is anything special. They give Moderna (a company with no proof of concept) $200 million for the rights to their program and won't even give ONCS a quote to put in their PR... WTF!

No opinion on this yet.  Something for everyone to keep in mind, Punit previously told me that each patient costs $70k for the full treatment.  If ONCS is funding this, the cost is going to be at least $7m (70x100), plus normal operations.