Oncolytics Announces Second Quarter 2012 Results

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. has announced its financial results and operational highlights for the quarter ended June 30, 2012.

"Early in the quarter, we announced that we had completed enrollment in the first, 80-patient stage of our Phase III trial in head and neck cancers," said Dr. Brad Thompson , President and CEO of Oncolytics.

Dr. Thompson continued, "We continued to make progress on this key clinical initiative during the quarter with our independent Data Monitoring Committee recommending the trial proceed based on a review of the safety data. We continue to await the results of an ongoing data review which will enable us to determine the next steps for the study."

Selected Highlights

Since March 31, 2012, the Company has made a number of significant announcements:

Clinical Trial Program

• Completion of enrollment in the first, 80-patient stage of its Phase III clinical trial examining REOLYSIN® in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin in patients with platinum-refractory head and neck cancers (REO 018);

• Review by Company's independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) of the safety data for the first stage of the Company's Phase III trial in head and neck cancers and received a recommendation that enrollment continue in the study while awaiting the ongoing data review;

• Entry into an agreement whereby the NCIC Clinical Trials Group (CTG) at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, will sponsor and conduct a randomized Phase II study of REOLYSIN in patients with advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer enrolling up to 100 patients;

• Entry into an agreement whereby the NCIC CTG will sponsor and conduct a randomized Phase II study of REOLYSIN in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer enrolling up to 150 patients;

• Entry into an agreement whereby the NCIC CTG will sponsor and conduct a randomized Phase II study of REOLYSIN in patients with advanced or metastatic breast cancer enrolling up to 100 patients; and

Clinical Trial Results

• Publication of a paper entitled "Cell Carriage, Delivery, and Selective Replication of an Oncolytic Virus in Tumor in Patients," in the June 13, 2012 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine (Vol. 4 Issue 138 138ra77), covering findings from a U.K. translational clinical trial (REO 013) investigating intravenous administration of REOLYSIN in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer prior to surgical resection of liver metastases.

The researchers found that intravenously-administered reovirus could specifically target and infect metastatic liver tumors in 90% of the patients, even though all patients treated had had a pre-existing immunity to the virus.