Shares of ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ:ZIOP) ended Tuesday session in green amid volatile trading. The shares closed up +0.06 points or 0.86% at $7.02 with 2.27 million shares getting traded. Post opening the session at $7.02, the shares hit an intraday low of $6.79 and an intraday high of $7.06 and the price vacillated in this range throughout the day. The company has a market cap of $913.70 million and the numbers of outstanding shares have been calculated to be 131.84 million shares.
ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. (ZIOP) on May 18, 2016 announced that interim results from the Company’s ongoing Phase 1, multi-center dose-escalation study of the gene therapy candidate Ad-RTS-hIL-12 + orally-administered veledimex in patients with recurrent or progressive glioblastoma will be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting held June 3-7, 2016, at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. Ad-RTS-hIL-12 + veledimex is a novel viral gene therapy candidate for the controlled expression of interleukin 12 (IL-12), a pro-inflammatory cytokine critical for stimulating anti-cancer immune responses.
Glioblastoma is an aggressive primary brain tumor affecting approximately 74,000 people worldwide each year.i, ii Recurrent glioblastoma is an aggressive cancer with one of the lowest 3-year survival rates, at 3%, among all cancers.iii For patients who have experienced multiple recurrences the prognosis is particularly poor, with a median overall survival (OS) of 6-7 months, while OS in patients that have failed temozolomide and bevacizumab, or equivalent salvage chemotherapy, is approximately 3-5 months.
The primary objective of the study is to determine the safety and tolerability of a single intratumoral Ad-RTS-hIL-12 injection activated upon dosing with oral veledimex. Secondary objectives are to determine the Ad-RTS-hIL-12 + veledimex maximum tolerated dose, the immune responses elicited by Ad-RTS-hIL-12 + veledimex, and assessment of biologic response. Eleven patients with recurrent high-grade gliomas (one with grade III and ten with grade IV) have been treated to date with Ad-RTS-hIL-12 through direct injection into their brain tumors, including seven patients in the first dose cohort (veledimex dosed at 20 mg) and four in the ongoing second dose cohort (veledimex dosed at 40 mg). Veledimex was taken orally to activate the production of IL-12 from the tumor site and stimulate an immune response.
Shares of Opko Health Inc. (NYSE:OPK) ended Tuesday session in green amid volatile trading. The shares closed up +0.39 points or 3.88% at $10.44 with 2.83 million shares getting traded. Post opening the session at $10.15, the shares hit an intraday low of $10.11 and an intraday high of $10.49 and the price vacillated in this range throughout the day. The company has a market cap of $5.66 billion and the numbers of outstanding shares have been calculated to be 547.44 million shares.
Opko Health Inc. (OPK) on May 10, 2016 announced the appointment of Thomas Nusbickel as Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Marketing and Market Access to support the anticipated launch of RAYALDEE®.
Mr. Nusbickel has over 25 years of pharmaceutical experience with established large companies, such as Hospira, Amgen and Abbott, with a career long focus on specialty products and nephrology. He has been involved in numerous product launches including serving as the global lead for Amgen’s launch of Sensipar, and has deep connections with managed care organizations and with key nephrology opinion leaders. Prior to joining OPKO, Mr. Nusbickel served as Hospira’s Head of U.S. Market Access, Biologics and as Amgen’s Executive Director, Value Access and Advocacy.
“OPKO is proud to add Tom to our growing management team responsible for commercializing RAYALDEE in the U.S. Tom has extensive, successful experience in launching new products in the U.S. chronic kidney disease market,” said Phillip Frost, M.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OPKO, “and we are confident that he will help drive Rayaldee to great success.”