Vancouver, British Columbia — January 7, 2026 — Leads & Copy — Oncolytics Biotech Inc. has expanded its gastrointestinal (GI) Tumor Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) with the appointment of Dr. Eileen O’Reilly, Dr. Neil Segal, and Dr. Van Morris.
These three experts in gastrointestinal oncology will support Oncolytics’ clinical programs in pancreatic, colorectal, and anal cancers. They will also guide the Company’s strategy as it advances pelareorep as a platform immunotherapy across GI tumors.
Dr. O’Reilly is the Winthrop Rockefeller Endowed Chair of Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). She is an expert in pancreatic cancer research and treatment.
Dr. O’Reilly said the data emerging with pelareorep across gastrointestinal cancers adds to the evidence of immunotherapy’s potential in these diseases. She added the opportunity to help guide a program that has demonstrated durable responses and encouraging survival signals across multiple tumor types is important.
Dr. Segal is the Research Director of the Division of Gastrointestinal Oncology at MSK. He is an expert in translational oncology and biomarker-driven development.
Dr. Segal said pelareorep’s immunomodulatory potential across solid tumors warrants further evaluation as a potential therapeutic approach. He added he looks forward to contributing scientific guidance as Oncolytics advances its clinical development program and explores collaborative opportunities.
Dr. Morris is an Associate Professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, where he also serves as the Section Chief for Colorectal Cancer.
Dr. Morris said he has a strong belief in the potential of immunotherapies like pelareorep to help patients in the gastrointestinal cancer setting. He added this drug candidate has shown very promising findings in early trials for patients with colorectal and anal cancers, which should be further studied as soon as possible, and he looks forward to shepherding pelareorep through these next steps of its development.
Jared Kelly, Chief Executive Officer of Oncolytics Biotech, said they’re thrilled to welcome Drs. O’Reilly, Segal, and Morris to their GI SAB. Kelly added each brings deep clinical and strategic expertise that will be instrumental as they advance pelareorep through late-stage development.
Kelly said their focus remains on moving forward with studies that aim to deliver new treatments for patients with difficult GI tumors—programs with total addressable markets so significant that large pharma should take notice. He added pelareorep represents an immunotherapy platform with broad applicability across gastrointestinal cancers, and they are strategically positioned to maximize its impact.
Oncolytics’ GI SAB now includes six global experts representing academic and clinical institutions across North America and Europe. The inaugural three members include Sanjay Goel, M.D., M.S., FASCO, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Phase I Program at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey; Deva Mahalingam, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine, GI oncologist and Director of the Developmental Therapeutics Program, Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern University; and Dirk Arnold, M.D., Ph.D., FESMO, Principal Investigator of the GOBLET study, Professor of Medicine, and Director of Asklepios Tumorzentrum Hamburg, Germany.
The GI SAB will continue to provide guidance on study design, clinical strategy, and translational initiatives as the Company advances its pancreatic, anal, and colorectal cancer programs toward registration-enabling trials.
An aggregated analysis of pelareorep’s efficacy across multiple clinical studies and over 100 patients showed the two-year overall survival (OS) rate was ~22.0% for pelareorep-based treatment regimens compared to a historical benchmark of ~9.0% in first-line pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
The combination of pelareorep and a checkpoint inhibitor generated an objective response rate (ORR) of 30%, whereas the current approved standard of care for second-line or later squamous cell anal carcinoma patients is a checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy that recorded an ORR of 13.8%.
Second-line KRAS-mutant metastatic colorectal patients who received pelareorep and FOLFIRI + bevacizumab recorded 16.6 months progression-free survival compared to 5.7 months for the historical control of FOLFIRI + bevacizumab, and 27.0 months compared to 11.2 months for OS. Further analysis of data from this study resulted in an ORR of 33% for patients receiving the pelareorep-based combination regimen compared to 6-11% for the historical benchmark.
Oncolytics is planning pivotal studies in all three of these indications and will continue to engage the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where needed while simultaneously moving each indication forward.
Oncolytics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing pelareorep, an investigational intravenously delivered double-stranded RNA immunotherapeutic agent.
Pelareorep has demonstrated encouraging results in multiple first-line pancreatic cancer studies, two randomized Phase 2 studies in metastatic breast cancer, and early-phase studies in anal and colorectal cancer. It is designed to induce anti-cancer immune responses by converting immunologically “cold” tumors “hot” through the activation of innate and adaptive immune responses.
The Company is advancing pelareorep in combination with chemotherapy and/or checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic pancreatic and breast cancers, of which both development programs have received Fast Track designation from the FDA, and other gastrointestinal tumors. Oncolytics is actively pursuing strategic partnerships to accelerate development and maximize commercial impact.
Source: Oncolytics Biotech Inc.
