Ziopharm Oncology Responds to Recent Stock Decline and Clarifies Exclusivity Rights for Clinical Assets

Ziopharm Oncology (Nasdaq:ZIOP) today responded to the recent decline in the Company’s stock price, which accelerated greatly on December 26, 2018, the same day that the broader market and all indexes were up significantly.

As quoted in the press release:

“Our stock price is significantly down of late, and we want to assure the market that our business fundamentals are unchanged and we are optimistic about Ziopharm’s future especially in light of the recent announcements we made with regards to our restructured relationship with Intrexon, the securing of a clean and longer-term balance sheet, and two partnerships with Regeneron and Eden BioCell. We believe it is important to respond urgently,” said Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Ziopharm. “We want to clarify the record around the programs and assets where we have exclusivity.”

Over approximately the last three years, Ziopharm and Intrexon (and later Precigen) mutually agreed to focus their collaborative efforts on four pipeline components: 1. Sleeping Beauty TCR-T cell therapy with the National Cancer Institute (NCI); 2. Sleeping Beauty CD19 CAR-T at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; 3. Ad-RTS-hIL-12 plus veledimex in multi-center trials; and 4. CD33 as a potential CAR target at MD Anderson. In addition, one of the key elements for very-rapid manufacture of T cells genetically modified with the Sleeping Beauty platform is membrane-bound interleukin 15, or mbIL15, which was invented by Dr. Cooper’s team at MD Anderson and licensed to Ziopharm and Intrexon.

Click here to read the full press release.