Here's What Just Happened With OncoSec Medical Inc (NASDAQ:ONCS)

At the start of September, we published this piece detailing our expectations for development stage biotechnology company OncoSec Medical Inc (NASDAQ:ONCS).At the time, the company was closing in on a month of basically flat trading and we suggested that a couple of near-term catalysts could come together to set up OncoSec for a breakout and, in turn, that this made the company one to watch as we moved into the final quarter of 2017.It's taken a couple of months for our thesis to come to fruition but come to fruition, it has.This week, the company announced data from a trial of its lead development asset and its share price has soared on the back of the news.At the bell on Wednesday, OncoSec went for around $1.22 per share. By close of play, this had risen to $2 and the company looks set to open on Thursday with a running start.So what is driving the action?As we outlined last time, this company's lead asset is what's called the ImmunoPulse system. It is a proprietary technology developed in-house that is designed to improve the chances of a particular type of cancer therapy working in patients that might otherwise not respond to the therapy in question. ONCS Daily ChartSpecifically, patients are treated with what's called an IL-12 drug and then they undergo ImmunoPulse therapy. The ImmunoPulse system transmits what are essentially electrical shock waves into the tumor microenvironment and the shock waves are designed to make cancer cells porous temporarily. This allows the IL-12 active compounds to enter the cells and, in turn, to get to work killing them off.To put this another way, ImmunoPulse is designed to open little holes in cancer cells that the cancer-killing drugs can pass through.It's a pretty novel concept and, just as is always the case with these sorts of fresh approaches, it’s had its fair share of detractors as it has moved along its development pathway.With the latest data in hand, however, it looks as though OncoSec has what it needs to rebuke any non-efficacy argument going forward.So what did the numbers show?The trial was a phase II study set up to investigate safety and efficacy in patients with melanoma that have been evaluated as not likely to respond to standard of care immunotherapy treatment.Each patient in the active arm of the study was treated with the company's ImmunoPulse IL-12 therapy in combination with pembrolizumab, which is the SOC immunotherapy asset referenced above. As per the data that hit press, the combination demonstrated a 57% progression-free survival (PFS) rate at 15 months, with a duration of response at 100% (this refers to eleven out of eleven patients included in this subset). Data collected previously pointed to a best overall response rate (BORR) of 50%, associated with a 41% complete response rate.In other words, it looks as though the drug can work incredibly well in this patient population.We can't get too excited, of course – the results of mid-stage trials often fail to replicate once the patient population increases as part of a pivotal study designed to underpin registration.With that said, however, the numbers are about as good as they could be at this stage and it is for this reason that markets are pushing the company up on the back of their release.So what are we looking for going forward?There is a conference call slated for Friday (tomorrow) and we will no doubt get a little bit more detail on the numbers involved with the trial, as well as some insight into the safety profile of the drug when the call takes place. We are looking for this insight to reinforce an advance into a pivotal trial and, subsequent to that, some clarity on time frames as to when the company intends to make said advance.Keep in mind that we may see a capital raise near-term given that OncoSec needs to fund a pivotal trial and that this raise will likely be dilutive. Not prohibitively so, but it's going to bring about a near-term dip if it is announced.Check out our previous coverage of this one here. We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on ONCS, sign up below!Image courtesy of Stephanie Young Merzel via FlickrDisclosure: We have no position in ONCS and have not been compensated for this article.