$PVCT's Word out of the 8th World Congress of Melanoma

The 8th World Congress of Melanoma (the "Congress") was held in Hamburg, Germany from July 17th to 20th. The last congress was held four years ago (2009) in Vienna, Austria. PV-10 was the subject of or materially discussed in four presentations/speaker sessions at the Congress: Provectus principal investigator ("PI") Dr. John Thompson, PI Dr. Sanjiv Agarwala, Dr. Robert Andtbacka (a PI for Amgen's T-Vec) and Dr. Nikolas Haass.

Since the Congress' completion, I have heard multiple direct and hearsay comments, emanating from Congress attendees, that were very positive about PV-10. Among them Moffitt researchers, paraphrasing, have never seen a drug work so well. Their comments derive from the cancer center's first hand experience with PV-10 and patients as part of the cancer center's Phase 1 feasibility study. "Well" refers to:

• How well the drug is tolerated. That is, PV-10's pristine safety profile;
• How effective PV-10 is; That is, the drug's efficacy;
• How well the drug ablates. That is, PV-10's ability to significantly shrink or completely eliminate cancerous tumors; and
• How specific PV-10 is; That is, the drug's ability to selectively target and destroy cancer cells without harming surrounding healthy tissue.

To put these comments in context, Dr. Jeffrey Weber, director of Moffitt's Donald A. Adam Comprehensive Melanoma Research Center of Excellence, was influential in the approvals of melanoma drugs Bristol-Myer's ipilimumab (Yervoy) and Roche/Genentech & Daiichi Sankyo/Plexxikon's vemurafenib (Zelboraf).

Moffitt Cancer Center's ("Moffitt's") peer-reviewed publication in PLoS One, the subject of today's company press release, was published (July 17th) for the start of the Congress. This manuscript is a very newsworthy item. I would expect another high profile item to be released or announced prior to Provectus' participation at the European Cancer Congress ("ECCO") 2013, which runs from September 27th to October 1st.