Targovax strengthens Board of Directors with the appointment of Catherine Wheeler

Oslo, Norway, 12 April 2018 - Targovax ASA (OSE: TRVX), a clinical stage company focused on developing immuno-oncology therapies to target solid tumors, today announces the appointment of Catherine Wheeler MD to the Targovax Board of Directors

Catherine has had a long and distinguished international career in drug development spanning 20 years. Most recently she was Chief Medical Officer at Acetylon Pharmaceutical and prior to that held progressively senior clinical and business development roles at Roche, AstraZeneca and Parexel, where she worked on a number of Phase I-III global oncology programs and had significant interaction with the regulatory bodies including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Additionally, she was an established global consultant and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she joined in 1981. Catherine is Board Certified in Internal Medicine with sub-specialties in Haematology and Medical Oncology.

Patrick Vink, Chairman of the Targovax Board of Directors, commented: "We are delighted to welcome Catherine, she brings extensive international oncology expertise and insights that will further strengthen the Board. She has had a long and distinguished career and has significant experience of bringing innovative oncology treatments to market that will be invaluable as we continue to progress the clinical development of our novel and complementary portfolio of cancer immunotherapies."  

Commenting on her appointment, Catherine Wheeler MD said: "There is a growing global need for new approaches to cancer treatment and the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly focused on immunotherapies. Targovax has an exciting portfolio of novel products, which have the potential to offer innovative combination treatment options and I look forward to working with the team as we continue to build on the significant achievements delivered to date."

For further information, please contact:
Renate Birkeli, Investor Relations
Phone: +47 922 61 624
Email: [email protected] 

Media and IR enquires:
Andreas Tinglum - Corporate Communications (Norway)
Phone: +47 9300 1773
Email: [email protected]

Simon Conway/Stephanie Cuthbert - FTI Consulting (International)
Phone: +44 20 3727 1000
Email: [email protected]   

About Targovax

Arming the patient's immune system to fight cancer

Targovax (OSE:TRVX) is a clinical stage company focused on developing and commercializing novel immuno-oncology therapies to target, primarily, treatment-resistant solid tumors. Immuno-oncology is currently one of the fastest growing therapeutic fields in medicine.

The Company's development pipeline is based on two novel proprietary platforms:

The first platform, ONCOS, uses oncolytic viruses as potential multi-target, neo-antigen therapeutic cancer vaccines. ONCOS uses an adenovirus that has been engineered to be an immune activator that selectively targets cancer cells. In phase I trials it has demonstrated immune activation at lesional level which was associated with clinical benefit. In an ongoing phase I trial in advanced melanoma we expect important proof of concept data for checkpoint inhibitor refractory patients.

The second platform, TG, are neo-antigen cancer vaccines designed to specifically treat tumors that express mutated forms of RAS. Mutations to the RAS protein are common in many cancers and are known to drive aggressive disease progression and treatment resistance. There is a high unmet medical need for therapies that are effective against tumors that express these mutations. The TG platform's therapeutic potential stems from its ability to enable the patient's immune system to identify and destroy tumors bearing any RAS mutations. In early 2017, key proof of concept data for the TG platform from a clinical trial of TG01 in resected pancreatic cancer patients showed encouraging overall survival and will give guidance for the future clinical development of this platform.

Targovax's development pipeline has three novel therapeutic candidates in clinical development covering six indications.

Both platforms are protected by an extensive portfolio of IP and know-how and have the potential to yield multiple product candidates in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, Targovax has other products in early stages of development.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.