Dr. Eliel Bayever Joins OncoQuest as Chief Medical Officer

EDMONTON, May 14, 2018 /CNW/ - OncoQuest Inc. ("OncoQuest"), a privately held, cancer immunotherapy company, today announced the appointment of Dr. Eliel Bayever as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Bayever has spent almost 20 years in the biopharmaceutical industry developing both biologics and small molecule oncology drugs globally.

Prior to joining OncoQuest, Dr. Bayever was Vice President and Head of Oncology at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, responsible for leading the effort to develop novel biologics for cancer immunotherapy. Prior to that, he was Vice President, Medical, at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, where he led the registration study, regulatory submission and global approval of ONIVYDE as a post-gemcitabine treatment of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Bayever has also held senior medical positions at Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth (now Pfizer), Human Genome Sciences (now Glaxo Smith Kline), and Bayer focusing primarily on oncology therapeutics, as well as related devices and diagnostics.  

Before joining Bayer, Dr. Bayever was Associate Professor of Pediatrics at The George Washington School of Medicine and Health Services and Director of the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Program, a senior investigator at the Center for Cancer and Transplantation Biology and a member of the Institutional Biosafety Committee at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC. He was also on staff at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Bayever received his medical degree from the Medical School of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom after time spent at King's College Hospital in London and completed a Fellowship in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at UCLA. Dr. Bayever has published over 30 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and contributed 15 editorials, reviews and chapters.

"We are delighted that Dr. Bayever is joining the OncoQuest team", said Dr. Madi R. Madiyalakan, OncoQuest's CEO. "The experience Eliel brings in leading early and late stage global clinical development and regulatory teams in oncology, including immunotherapy, will be very valuable as we move both our ovarian and pancreatic cancer therapeutics programs further in their clinical progress."

"I am very excited to be joining the OncoQuest leadership team at this important inflection in the Company's development. This is a pivotal time for OncoQuest's oregovomab, a novel immunotherapy, the Company's lead compound. In Phase 2, oregovomab showed great promise as a frontline therapy for ovarian cancer where the standard of care has not changed for decades, and I look forward to leading it to potential registration. The opportunity to help grow a company that has the possibility of altering the way in which cancer is treated is, as always, very compelling to an oncologist," commented Dr. Bayever.

About OncoQuest
OncoQuest is a subsidiary of Quest PharmaTech Inc. (TSXV-QPT) ("Quest"), and is a private biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of immunotherapies for cancer. OncoQuest's technology platform includes a portfolio of tumor antigen specific monoclonal immunoglobulins including CA125, MUC1, PSA and Her2/neu. We are developing protocols utilizing these antibodies in combination with other immune modulating drugs or drug combinations to enhance tumor specific immunity and clinical outcome.

OncoQuest's lead product is oregovomab, an anti-CA125 antibody, for the treatment of ovarian cancer that is currently undergoing multiple Phase 2 clinical trials. OncoQuest's anti-MUC1 antibody program has already undergone a Phase 1 clinical trial in breast cancer patients, and its development is being led by OncoVent Co. Ltd., OncoQuest's joint venture partner that has licensed the rights of the immunotherapy technologies in the territory of Greater China. OncoQuest's next-generation products are based on immunoglobulin E licensed from UCLA, Stanford University and Advanced Immune Therapeutics, Inc. These antigen-specific monoclonal IgE antibodies are currently in preclinical development.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. These statements are based on management's expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations and assumptions from those set forth or implied by any forward-looking statements. The information in this release is provided only as of the date of this release and the company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release based on new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

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SOURCE OncoQuest Inc.

Hany S. Awadalla, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, OncoQuest Inc., Tel: [phone], Email: [email protected], Internet: www.oncoquestinc.com