Laurence Cooper
Analyst · Raymond James. Your line is now open
Thank you, David, and thank you all for joining me today. So we’ll begin on Slide 3. Let me first go over the agenda and the speakers for the call. Initially, I’ll provide updates on the CAR-T programs, including the current status of the FDA hold on the third-generation trial targeting CD19, the status of our TCR program with Dr. Rosenberg and his group at the NCI and then an update on controlled IL-12 studies that are enrolling patients both as monotherapy and in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Then, our Lead Director – he’s been newly appointed, Scott Tarriff, will outline plans from the perspective of our board. And finally, our Chief Business Officer and Interim COO, David Mauney, will provide an update to our current balance sheet and cash time line and a brief overview of other activities. Just transition to Slide 4. And with that, and at the beginning, let me start with some reassurance. All of us at ZIOPHARM believe we’re on the edge of achieving important value driving milestones. Our platforms and vision remain intact, and we are executing on our plan for growth. And we expect this trend to continue, even to accelerate. We do acknowledge the downturn in our stock and the anxiety it has caused. But let us keep in mind, however, where we have come from and where we are going. Over the last approximately three years, we have transitioned to a broad immuno-oncology company focused on driving forward two major and distinct platform technologies that, when successful, will have overcome the major problems in the field of immuno-oncology that our competitors face: namely, how does one target solid tumors and how does one bring down the costs of cell therapies? The field of immuno-oncology will not reach its full potential unless these two problems are overcome. And the good news for ZIOPHARM is that we’re already implementing the answers with our two platform technologies. One platform is a cell therapy approach based on the Sleeping Beauty system, the most clinical advanced approach to genetically modifying cells without using a virus. And the second platform being a gene therapy technology to control IL-12. IL-12 being a master regulator of immune system. We at ZIOPHARM understand the complexities relative to being first movers, and we feel that the market opportunity for our technologies is even stronger today. So let’s review together where these program stand beginning on Slide 5. I’ll start with the Sleeping Beauty platform for cell therapy and an update on our IND status regarding our third-generation Phase I trial to evaluate CD19-specific CAR-T, which can be produced in under two days, or as we say, using point-of-care technology. We announced in May that the IND have been filed by MD Anderson, the trial sponsor. And in June, we announced that the FDA has requested more information and place this IND on clinical hold. We now know what the FDA requires to complete the IND process. And ZIOPHARM, Precigen and MD Anderson Cancer Center all working together in an expedited fashion. With regards to the questions in the hold letter, the agency has requested additional information related to the chemistry manufacturing and controls. We appreciate the agency’s feedback, and we are confident that this time that these questions that the agency has post can all be addressed. Our approach to the two-day very rapid manufacturing of autologous T cells is bold. Our T-cell product is based on cutting-edge science, and we understand our approach will be scrutinized given that we are first-mover for the manufacture of autologous T cells in under two days. Our guidance for the beginning of this year was to initiate the trial in the second half of 2018. And thus, we already built in a buffer in case additional time was needed to file in the IND. ZIOPHARM and our partners that MD Anderson and Precigen are rapidly executing on the plan to bring IND off hold as soon as possible. For example, we already began preclinical studies to develop additional data to support the IND application. We anticipate these studies, which are expected to take a few months to complete, will provide us with a data we need to answer the agency’s questions. Indeed, we are focused on responding to the agency as soon as possible. But the timing of the clinical trial anticipated to be initiated by the end of this year may be impacted. And as we get more clarity from the FDA throughout this process, we’ll get a better idea as to the effect on our timelines. What happens after this IND is accepted? Well, we’re not waiting to find out, and we’re already working closely with MD Anderson to get the trial team up and running. Thus, as soon as we’re off hold, we can complete this process to begin recruiting and treating patients. We anticipate enrolling up to 15 patients and look forward to sharing data and updates with you along the way. In the meantime, our second-generation trial infusing CD19-specific CAR-T manufactured with the Sleeping Beauty system continues to enroll and treat patients at MD Anderson. This study helps us advance our understanding of T-cell dosing, CAR design, approaches to reduce the time to manufacture the T cells and understandings around the release criteria. This effort will continue until we commence the third-generation trial, at which point we’ll stop enrolling on the second-generation trial. Importantly, we highlighted some patients in the second-generation trial have achieved complete responses as six months post infusion, which together with the data which we published from our first-generation trial, indicates that the Sleeping Beauty system can insert meaningful anti-tumor responses. Thus, our learnings and these clinical data bode well for our groundbreaking third-generation study, which we also call point-of-care. Just transition to Slide 6 and my update on the CD33 CAR-T program. We are treating patients at MD Anderson with refractory AML using a lentivirus to genetically modify T cells. These patients can be difficult to enroll and treat as they are so medically fragile, but we are learning a great deal. And just as a reminder, this trial was designed to evaluate CD33 as a target, and we expected to decide on whether to transition this to the Sleeping Beauty platform and its very rapid non-viral manufacturing and to do this by the end of the year. On Slide 7, I’ll provide a brief update regarding Merck KGaA as they have selected two targets to pursue using ZIOPHARM’s Sleeping Beauty platform technology. The initial proof-of-concept preclinical studies have been successfully completed with Precigen, and Merck KGaA is currently evaluating next steps for these targets. And we look forward to providing you updates on Merck KGaA’s progress in the future. Slide 8. Now let me turn to the TCR programs. As you know, we are currently working with the NCI and Dr. Rosenberg under a CRADA, leveraging the Sleeping Beauty platform to generate T cells that express personalized T-cell receptors, or TCRs, to target neoantigens buried within solid tumors. We believe we stand alone in this area as the Sleeping Beauty platform provides a practical, non-viral approach to manufacturing tumor-specific, and thus, patient-specific autologous T cells to go after the neoantigens. We do not believe the viral-based genetic modification processes are going to be scalable to undertake commercial endeavors for T cells targeting neoantigens. I’m delighted to report there’s a tremendous drive to the NCI on our CRADA. They have developed a process using our Sleeping Beauty system to enable these neoantigen-specific TCRs to be expressed on patient’s T cells. It’s critical to note that this approach to manufacturing had to be individualized, or said differently, personalized, as each TCR to each patient is different. And this contrasts with the work we and others are undertaking with CARs, where one CAR design can serve the needs of many patients sharing a cancer type. Thus, the Sleeping Beauty system is ideally suited to this new manufacturing as the non-viral DNA plasma can be readily adapted to express unique TCRs and the genetically modified T cells can be manufactured based on technologies the team at the NCI has already successfully tested in humans. The path to the clinic and the map for the IND filing is in place, and we remain on track to submit the investigator-initiated IND in the fourth quarter of this year. As we anticipated, targeting neoantigens within solid tumors has become a hot area. Indeed, a very hot area. The ability to apply therapies that recognize neoantigens using TCR-modified T cells offers real possibilities of targeting solid tumors, which will likely dwarf the market for CAR-T, which are largely combined to the therapy for hematologic malignancies or blood cancers. As such, we’ve accelerated our global TCR outreach, we’re discussing with other parties about ways to expand on this program. We believe the field of TCR therapy for solid tumors is wide open and filled with opportunities, and we have an exciting opportunity therein. Slide 9. Let me go on and address our controlled IL-12 program, or platform for gene therapy. At ASCO this year, we updated the survival data from our Phase I trial delivering IL-12 as a single agent in patients with recurrent glioblastoma, or rGBM. As of May 2018, we showed an encouraging median overall survival of 12.7 months, and that have been sustained for patients treated with a single injection of adenovirus, or as we say, Ad-RTS-hIL-12 plus 12 milligrams daily dosing of veledimex. And that’s what’s sustained to a mean follow-up time of 12.9 months. This median overall survival compared very favorably to the five months to eight months of median overall survival established in the historical controls with patients with recurrent GBM, which is a key reason why this platform garners continued interest. To build upon these clinical data, we are enrolling patients at multiple sites in the United States in an expansion trial of this Phase I study and plan to add up to 25 patients in the cohort receiving 20 milligrams daily dosing of veledimex. The patient population is further refined based on our past learnings in that enrollees will not have received bevacizumab for their disease and are not receiving steroids for the four weeks prior to the therapy initiation. And I’ll remind everyone, in the past, we’ve shown data that patients with recurrent GBM receiving low-dose corticosteroid had a 100% overall survival after receiving our controlled IL-12 platform. Early this year, we embarked on efforts to broaden the clinical reach for this technology based on interest and feedback from potential partners. First, we’re combining our IL-12 therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors. And this past quarter, we dosed the first patients in our Phase I clinical trial to evaluate the controlled IL-12 platform in combination with Opdivo, a checkpoint inhibitor, in adult patients with recurrent GBM. We’re pleased to report this patient is doing well, and we are now actively enrolling additional patients on our way up to 18 enrollees with recurrent GBM in the single-arm multi-institution study, which will evaluate the safety and tolerability of this combination regimen, establish the optimal dosing and measure overall patient survival. Many have tried and many have failed to control IL-12. However, we are the company that is successfully learned to harness this important cytokine. The reason so many have attempted to work with this powerful cytokine, IL-12, and the reason our data stands out is that IL-12 is a master regulator of the immune system capable of kickstarting cascaded immune activity and remodeling the tumor microenvironment to achieve powerful anticancer effects. We know this forces the tumor cells to begin defending themselves against the invading army of T-cells, and they do this with immune checkpoints. This gives us a clear indication that combining our IL-12 platform with immune checkpoint inhibitor, such as that blockading PD-1 or anti-PD-1, has the potential to further impact solid tumors. Simply put, immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as those walking PD-1 and PD-L1, will be compromised and rendered ineffective if insufficient T cells are not in the tumor. Our ability to control IL-12 enables us to put T-cells in the tumor. In other words, IL-12 can turn cold tumors hot. These clinical data and plans establish a strong future for our controlled IL-12 platform. It has become clear to us the potential partners wish to see antitumor activity of the drug as a single agent and that drug can indeed drive T cells deep into the tumor and do so with a sustained effect. Our data already suggests we can do both, which bodes well for the future of that – this platform. We look forward to announcing our collaboration validating the potential for controlled IL-12, and we plan to move forward with one or more additional tumor types to explore the potential of this powerful cytokine in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors. We’re pushing the pedal in all areas. We are growing our company, strengthening our board and advancing each of our two core platform technologies based on a vision that remains very much intact. We believe the hold on the third-generation trial targeting CD19 is solvable, the TCR program with nearing the clinic and producing many new opportunities, and the IL-12 platform is well positioned to drive strong collaborations and partnerships. Slide 10, please. I just want to take a little time out and offer a really my gratitude and my thanks to Sir Murray Brennan, a world leader in oncology, for his commitment to and leadership of ZIOPHARM, as our formal Lead Director. As well as the distinguished Senator Wyche Fowler, who has faithfully worked with ZIOPHARM for many years. And I’m now delighted to turn the call over to our newly appointed Lead Director, Scott Tarriff, to discuss some of the steps the company is undertaking, most notably, the changes to our board announced just this week. Scott has been a valuable member of our board for about three years and is a dynamic and experienced leader with a well-documented history of success, including his current role of CEO of Eagle Pharmaceuticals. Scott?