By Daniela Fisher
INNOVATOR
West coast ties:
A
s someone who co-founded a biotech company at age 30, Punit Dhillon has achieved many successes in the biotech industry in a very short period of time. At 27, he became one of the youngest Canadians to be appointed vice president of a publicly traded biotech company. While at that company, he raised over $125 million through multiple financings and licensing deals, and was involved in several major global acquisitions and a merger. Perhaps his biggest achievement was cofounding OncoSec Medical two years ago. The San Diego-based company is pioneering a revolutionary new treatment that uses electricity to zap advanced-stage skin cancer. As president and CEO of OncoSec, Dhillon is leading the company to new frontiers in cancer treatment. An experienced veteran in the start-up field, he is an entrepreneur in every sense of the word. From 1998 to 2003, Dhillon worked at MDS Capital Corporation (now Lumira Capital Corp.) where he had the opportunity to act as a consultant for several early-stage health and life science companies. In 2003, he joined Inovio Pharmaceuticals, first as a contracts manager and within five years worked his way up to vice president of Finance and Operations. As vice president of finance, Dhillon played a major role in the acquisition and consolidation of Inovio AS, a Norwegian DNA delivery company, and led 16 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS June 2013
a key merger with VGX Pharmaceuticals that shaped Inovio into the vaccine-focused company it is today. He also raised over $125 million through multiple financings and several licensing deals. With each role, Dhillon increased his knowledge of the Canadian and international biotech landscapes. Equipped with a strong skill set in the areas of investment and financing for start-ups, as well as private sector business, Dhillon was ready to pursue new opportunities. In 2011, a pioneering new technology at Inovio caught his eye. A true entrepreneur and visionary, Dhillon believed he could spin out a company based on the technology, called ImmunoPulse, to target unmet needs in skin cancer treatment. “We saw a tremendous opportunity in the advancement of skin cancer treatment, where there were very limited treatment options for patients dealing with deadly, metastatic disease,” explains Dhillon. “Most of the treatment options revolved around surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. They were just not the right approach to deal with metastatic disease. We saw an opportunity to advance electroporation [and immunotherapy] in a way that would address this advanced-stage skin cancer.” ImmunoPulse is a technology that uses an electrical pulse to create temporary pores in cells (electroporation), through which
Canadian entrepreneur finds success south of the border extracellular genetic material can pass and be assimilated into the cell’s DNA. In cancer cells, chemotherapeutics or gene-based cytokines can be delivered through the temporary pores, allowing for more effective treatment at significantly lower doses. With this process in mind, the start-up licensed Inovio’s non-DNA vaccine technology and the intellectual property behind electroporation and in March 2011, OncoSec Medical emerged. Under Dhillon’s leadership, the company has gone from zero development in its pipeline to three Phase 2 studies, all within two years. Since March 2011, it has raised working capital to the tune of $19 million. Currently, the company is working on its revolutionary OncoSec Medical System™ (OMS), a delivery system for treating solid tumours, as well as expanding its ImmunoPulse pipeline. For Dhillon, developing a treatment for metastatic skin cancer – which previously had no or limited treatment options – is his inspiration and the drive behind OncoSec Medical. “That’s what has really been the driving force behind pushing this technology forward,” says Dhillon. “We have a technology that is changing the paradigm of the way cancer is being treated.” The OMS consists of a generator and
