Cancer fight is personal for Oncolytics boss

When Brad Thompson says he’s passionate about Oncolytics Biotech and its development of pharmaceutical products for the treatment of cancer, the words don’t ring hollow.

The CEO of Oncolytics is in the midst of testing the company’s product, Reolysin, on terminal cancer patients at the Tom Baker Centre. Thompson knows something about the trauma of losing a loved one to cancer — his mom, Doreen, died of lung cancer four years ago.

And, in this interview from his office on Kensington Road, Thompson relates the story of how early detection of a melanoma on his thigh may have saved his life.

1. Busy?
“It’s nuts around here. Crazy. But that’s OK because I like what I’m doing.”

2. You’ve got to be pleased with your stock price a year after your initial public offering?
“Our public offering was 85 cents and we’re at $19.50 today. You don’t get those kind of returns in the pharmaceutical industry. What biotechnology gives you is a higher-risk, higher-return investment.”

3. How did you come to work in biotechnology?
“I spent a decade with the Alberta Research Council in Edmonton, where I had a couple of my experiments fly on space shuttles. I had an opportunity to go down to the States and work on space research full time but I was frustrated by NASA’s bureaucracy. It’s hurry up and wait. So in 1994, I had an opportunity to come to Calgary.”

4. What are your recollections of your transition from a job with the Alberta Research Council to eventually heading this company?
“I left a pretty secure, sedate life at the Alberta Research Council. Then, when I left Synsorb (he motions towards his former office at Synsorb directly across the street), I came here for $1 a month salary. That can be a little touchy at home. Your family looks at you like you’re nuts or something.”

5. This business cuts very close to the heart for you, doesn’t it?
“My mom (Doreen) died of cancer four years ago. I’ve had cancer too. I had a melanoma on my leg, almost five years ago now. It is more personal, but I can’t honestly say that’s why I’m doing it. One out of two men will get cancer in their lives and one out of three women, and that’s heading towards one out of two women. It’s really hard to find an adult who hasn’t had cancer or doesn’t know someone who has had cancer, so I’m not unique in any way.”

6. So there wasn’t much you could do for your mom?
“No, it was lung cancer. Seeing my mom waste away the way she did was hard and, if you can do something about it, it would be a good feeling. If Reolysin does what we hope it does, millions of people will benefit from it and that would be a very, very good feeling.”

7. How did you detect your cancer?
“I went in to my GP because I had a mole on my leg that I didn’t like. I said: ‘Take it off.’ And she said: ‘You’re nuts, Brad.’ I said: ‘Take it off anyway.’ The next morning, I had a surgeon phone me up and say they had me scheduled for surgery. They lopped off about a three-inch diameter chunk off my thigh, all for this little tiny mole. I’ve been fortunate that so far I’ve been OK. But it’s certainly a wakeup call. I certainly have no complaints about the care I’ve gotten out of our health-care system. There was pretty serious consideration paid very quickly to me.”

8. So what was it about that mole?
“I’m covered in moles. If I got paranoid about moles, I’d never get any sleep. There was something about that one. It didn’t really look different, honestly. I don’t know why. It was at a very early stage. The specialist said he’d never seen a melanoma that early. I was very lucky because, if it was six months later, I probably wouldn’t be here talking.”

9. This is much more than just a job to you?
“It’s 24 hours a day. This is my hobby. This is what I do. My family’s happy because I get bored really easy. It’s nice to be obsessive about something.”

10. Your most important lesson from your work?
“Take your responsibility really seriously. I mean, you’re taking people’s money and spending it on developing things. Your shareholders are the most important people in your life from my company’s perspective. So you treat them with respect.”

11. Does your company get a lot of calls from people who want to take part in the current clinical testing of Reolysin?
“Yeah, we probably get anywhere from two to 10 phone calls a day from people with cancer or people whose family members have cancer.”

12. You speak to them yourself?
“Yeah. It’s hard sometimes. I know what they’re going through. I remember what it was like when my mom was dying. My dad (George) kind of routed around all over the place looking for something and if we’d had access to Reolysin at the time, she would have got it. I know that. But it is tough. They’re dying or a loved one of theirs is dying. It’s understandable that they would be disappointed or insistent that we help them out. I have as much time as they want to talk to them. Everyone will call them back and talk to them as long as they want.”

13. Is there a message you want to convey to the patients who are participating in the Phase I testing?
“Thank you. It’s pretty remarkable. People have to go off all their other therapies even though they may not be deriving any benefit from (the testing). It means that, in many cases, they’re really signing their own death warrant. They’re really hoping that this treatment will help them out, but they really are taking part in an experiment. So we thank them.”

14. The patients in the testing have very short life expectancies. Have all of them survived to this point?
“The ones that are on trial are still alive. But they’re still within their entry life expectancies as it were. I would not expect that anybody, at least in the early stages of this study, even if it was working, would derive any medical benefit from the treatment. We’re starting at very, very low dosages. It’s what is called a dose-escalation study. Everybody always hopes that they could be helped. In the back of your head, you’re sitting there going: ‘I could be the one that benefits from this.’ But they also know that the chances are that their disease will kill them. And they’ve had time to adjust to that. A lot of these people have had multiple radiation-chemo treatments, surgery . . . they know more about cancer than a lot of doctors do.”

15. How are the trials progressing?
“I can’t talk about that. There are a lot of people who’d love to hear that. Yes, I do know. No, I can’t tell!”

16. How would you define success for Oncolytics?
“Success could be a bigger firm buying us, at a price that makes all our shareholders happy. It could be a bigger firm partnering with us. Or, in the end, actually getting the product out on the market. Most of the time, in the companies I’m aware of, those first two options are the ones that end up defining success.”

17. What do you see in your future?
“If it works out really well, I’ll have a lot of career options. If it doesn’t work out very well, then I’ll have less career options. I’ve got another 40 to 50 years of working life in front of me and I plan on working until I can’t work any longer. I can’t imagine not working.”

18. So is this the ultimate job?
“I honestly can’t imagine a job that’s more fun. Sure, it has challenges, ups, downs, potential for great rewards, potential for great failure. Yeah, it has just about everything a person could ask for in a job. If you’re an adrenalin junkie, this is the business for you.”

19. You’re in a lot of pain posing for these photos?
“It’s arthritis. I’m the poster child for youth sports injuries. I played rugby, football, hockey, lacrosse. I broke my back and my hip.”

20. So what sport do you excel at now?
“I read in the bathtub very well.”

THE COMPANY: Oncolytics Biotech
* Brass: Brad Thompson, CEO; Doug Ball, CFO; Matt Coffey, vice-president, product development; Dr. Patrick Lee, scientific collaborator.
* Focus: Oncolytics is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of pharmaceutical products for the treatment of cancer in humans and animals. In June, the company began Phase I clinical testing of its product, Reolysin, on 18 terminal cancer patients at Tom Baker Cancer Centre.
* Key product: Reolysin, for which Oncolytics recently received a U.S. patent, is already proven to kill human cancer cells implanted in mice without harming healthy cells.
* Recent stock price (ONC-TSE): $18.95 (Yr Range-$9.75-$21.50).
* Web site: www.oncolyticsbiotech.com
* Address: #301-1211 Kensington Rd N.W.
* Phone: 670-7377

IN PROFILE: Brad Thompson
* Born/Raised/Age: Edmonton, 43.
* Title: CEO/president, Oncolytics (since 1999).
* Education: University of Alberta (undergraduate in microbiology), University of Western Ontario (PhD).
* Claim to fame: Thompson’s experiments at Alberta Research Council flew on two space shuttles.
* Kicks back by: Skiing, hiking, reading science fiction.

CEO Brad Thompson lost his mother to cancer, but he's developing new pharmaceutical products he hopes can help save other sufferers