ONCS - OncoSec Receives $850000 from The Australian Research and Development (R&D) Tax Incentive Program for TAVO(TM) R&D Work in 2019
SAN DIEGO and PENNINGTON, N.J., March 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- OncoSec Medical Incorporated (NASDAQ:ONCS) (the "Company" or "OncoSec"), a company developing late-stage intratumoral cancer immunotherapies, today announced that it has received a Research and Development (R&D) Tax Incentive cash rebate of $850,000 from the Australian Tax Office.
The Australian government established this tax incentive program to stimulate local industry investment in R&D by offering businesses tax offsets for eligible R&D expenditures made in Australia. OncoSec previously established a subsidiary in Australia and is conducting a portion of both of its TAVO™ KEYNOTE clinical trials as well as other R&D activities in the region. This work enables OncoSec to qualify for the program and obtain reimbursement for certain expenditures.
"We are always looking for ways to obtain non-dilutive sources of capital for OncoSec," said Daniel J. O'Connor, President and CEO of OncoSec Medical Incorporated. "In addition to leveraging the Australian R&D incentive through our Australian subsidiary, we also relocated our corporate headquarters to New Jersey from San Diego to capitalize on New Jersey's tax incentive program for local businesses, which qualified OncoSec to receive approximately $875,000 for 2019 R&D work. Combined with the Australian payment, that's over $1.7 million in non-dilutive capital for OncoSec for R&D work done in 2019. We will use this cash to fund our ongoing TAVO clinical development programs this year, including our pivotal KEYNOTE-695 study in checkpoint resistant metastatic melanoma. We will continue to participate in both the Australian and New Jersey R&D tax incentive programs, as well as pursue any and all opportunities that maximize value for OncoSec shareholders."
About OncoSec Medical Incorporated
OncoSec Medical Incorporated (the "Company," "OncoSec," "we" or "our") is a late-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 investigational product candidate – 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 new Visceral Lesion Applicator (VLA), to target deep visceral lesions, such as liver, lung or pancreatic lesions. For more information, please visit www.oncosec.com.
TAVO™ is a trademark of OncoSec Medical Incorporated.
Risk Factors and Forward Looking Statements
This release, as well as other information provided from time to time by the Company or its employees, may contain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements provide the Company's current beliefs, expectations and intentions regarding future events and involve risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond the Company's control) and assumptions. For those statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements may include words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "should," "will" and "would" and similar expressions (including the negative of these terms). Although we believe that expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company intends these forward-looking statements to speak only at the time they are published on or as otherwise specified, and does not undertake to update or revise these statements as more information becomes available, except as required under federal securities laws and the rules and regulations of the Securities Exchange Commission ("SEC"). In particular, you should be aware that the success and timing of our clinical trials, including safety and efficacy of our product candidates, patient accrual, unexpected or expected safety events, and the usability of data generated from our trials may differ and may not meet our estimated timelines. Please refer to the risk factors and other cautionary statements provided in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2019 and subsequent periodic and current reports filed with the SEC (each of which can be found at the SEC's website www.sec.gov), as well as other factors described from time to time in the Company's filings with the SEC.
Company Contact:
Gem Hopkins
Head of Corporate Communications
858-210-7334
ghopkins@oncosec.com
SOURCE OncoSec Medical Incorporated